Paschasius

ON SAINT PASCHASIUS

DEACON AT ROME.

ABOUT DXX.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

On his cult and miracles, even existing in Purgatory: also on his writings, and on a different Deacon of Dumium from him.

Paschasius, Deacon at Rome (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

Joannes Molanus in the first

edition of his Auctarium to Usuard,

on XXXI May, in smaller

character, and prefixed by the letter

Q, to signify that the following

are had from a certain other

Martyrology, Memory in more recent Fasti, subjoins

these words: At Rome of S. Paschasius

Archdeacon and Confessor,

of whom Gregory in the Dialogues bk. 4 ch. 40.

At the Arverni of the Holy Confessors Alexander and

Galla, of whom Gregory of Tours in the book on

Confessors ch. 36. Petrus Canisius the same transferred

into his German Martyrology. Of the two last

we shall presently treat. Of the former in the present-day Roman

Martyrology these things are read: At Rome of S. Paschasius, Deacon and

Confessor, of whom B. Gregory the Pope makes mention. He

indeed of the said Paschasius, bk. 4 ch. 40 under this title. On

the soul of Paschasius the Deacon, when before he had treated of the fire

of purgatory, subjoins these things.

[2] For while I was still a youngster, and in

a lay habit constituted, I heard related by elders and

knowing ones, that Paschasius, elogium from the Dialogues of S. Gregory, of this Apostolic

See a Deacon, whose with us most correct and

luculent books on the holy Spirit exist, was a man of marvelous

sanctity, especially intent on the works

of almsgiving, cultivator of the poor and despiser of himself. But this man

in that contention, which kindling with the zeal of the faithful

between Symmachus and Laurentius arose, to

the rank of Pontiff Laurentius elected, and overcome by the unanimity

of all afterwards, in his sentence however

even unto the day of his death persisted, the same died in venial schism. loving him

and preferring him, whom by the Bishops' judgment

the Church refused to be set over her. He therefore when

in the times of Symmachus the Apostolic See's President

was deceased, his Dalmatic placed upon the bier

a demoniac touched, and forthwith was healed. After

much time however to Germanus Bishop of Capua,

of whom above I made memory, the physicians for the body's

health had dictated, that in the Angulan thermae

he should bathe. Who entering those same thermae, the aforesaid

Paschasius the Deacon, standing and serving

in the heats, found. Whom seeing he vehemently

was frightened; and, what so great a man was doing there, he inquired.

To whom he replied: For no other cause in this penal

place have I been deputed, except because in the part of Laurentius

against Symmachus I held. But I beg you, for me

beseech the Lord. And in this you shall know,

that you have been heard, if returning here you shall not have found me.

For which matter the man of the Lord Germanus

constrained himself in prayers, and after a few days returned, but already

the said Paschasius in the same place by no means he found.

For because not by malice, from purgatory liberation, but by the error of ignorance he had sinned,

he could be purged after death from sin.

Which however is to be believed, that from the largeness

of his alms this he obtained, that now he could

merit pardon, when now he could do nothing.

[3] So there, but in the Chapter following to these things Petrus adds these:

It pleases what you say: but in so great a man Paschasius this moves the mind

to inquiry, that after death

he was led to a penal place: whose bier's vestment

could be touched, and a malign spirit from a possessed man

put to flight. although before he had been declared a Saint by miracles. To which thus replies S. Gregory: In this

matter the great dispensation of omnipotent God, and

how manifold it is, must be acknowledged. By whose judgment it was done,

that the same man Paschasius, both himself within for some

time should receive what he had sinned, and yet

before human eyes marvels through his body should do,

who before death also to those knowing them pious

works had done: that neither these who his goods had seen, of

his almsgiving's estimation be deceived; nor

he himself without punishment loosed of the fault, which he did not even

believe to be a fault, and therefore did not extinguish it with weeping.

[4] So S. Gregory, to which sentence to be confirmed can serve

a similar example of S. Vitalina XXI February, from

S. Gregory of Tours. From that further excuse of Paschasius,

which Gregory the Great uses, as how Baronius excuses him. in the Notes Baronius infers,

those words, that in his sentence even unto the day of his exit

he persisted, either are to be exclusively understood,

as if so he persisted in the sentence, that at last on the day

of his death he repented; or it is necessary to say, that Paschasius,

while still that controversy of Symmachus's election was turning,

migrated from this life … Of the aforesaid

therefore the one or the other to have preceded is necessary,

since to his sanctity God by the virtue of an outstanding miracle

seems to have given assent; nay also an honest sepulture

with the covering of the Dalmatic he obtained. Where Baronius

very many things on the use of the Dalmatic has, which there can be seen.

[5] On the said contention of Laurentius with S. Symmachus more largely

it must be treated at the Life of S. Symmachus, who was created

in the year CCCCXCVIII, died in the year DXIV, buried

on the day on which he is venerated XIX July, when the Acts will be illustrated.

Meanwhile his elogium can be seen in the old

Catalogues of the Supreme Pontiffs, The age of S. Symmachus and S. Germanus published by us before

the first volume of April page XXXV. But S. Germanus,

Bishop of Capua, whose soul S. Benedict to

heaven by Angels saw being borne, is venerated XXX October.

This one I wonder, how Ferrarius did not mention him,

in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, where no elogium of him

he brings forth; nor there in the Topographic Index his name

does he allege: but in the Alphabetic Index these things are read:

Paschasius Deacon at Rome 3 May. Meanwhile neither

on that day nor in his Appendix mention does he make of him, silence in Ferrarius. and perhaps

31 May he wished to be printed; for also some other similar

defects so you may see in that Index supplied. Nicolaus

Brautius Bishop of Sarsina, in the Poetic Martyrology, those

verses published of the same Saint.

The Bishop praises Paschasius because greatest, with all

Eloquence of praise worthy to be held will be.

Constantinus Ghinius, in the Birthdays of the Holy Canons,

some elogium of him taken from S. Gregory has,

and Masinus in Bologna surveyed asserts that in the Church

of S. James Major some Relics of S. Paschasius are preserved:

but whether of this man, who would dare certainly to assert, when not even at Rome

are his Relics indeed known?

[6] Different from him is Paschasius the Deacon of S. Martin of Dumium. Georgius Cardosus in the Lusitanian Hagiology to his

ascribes on this day S. Paschasius; and before him Antonius

as if born in Lusitania, had been a monk and disciple

of S. Martin, first Abbot, then Bishop of Dumium and

afterwards of Braga, and by his command from Greek into Latin

translated some Eastern Councils, and the sentences

of the ancient Egyptian Fathers. Indeed of the seventh book of the

Lives of the Fathers in Rosweyde this is the title of the Prologue:

To the venerable Father Lord Martin Presbyter and

Abbot, Paschasius, who in the prior title is called S. R.

E. Deacon. But of that title Rosweyde in Prolegomenon

14 doubts: but because he had found it before printed, he was unwilling to change it.

The Acts of S. Martin of Dumium we illustrated on the day

XX March, where we showed him in the year DLXXX to have died,

when about twenty years he had lived in Galicia; and

S. Paschasius, of whom we treat here, long before the last day

had died. For S. Germanus seems from this life to have departed

in the year DXL on the day XXX October, whose successor S. Victor

to have been ordained in the year DXLI writes Ughellus on

the Bishops of Capua, just as more largely is to be said on the day XVII October

on which he is venerated. Now in how many years before his death S. Germanus

saw S. Paschasius in the Angulan thermae,

or Neapolitan baths, which then were called the Sweating-place of S. Germanus,

is not established. Indeed from the conjecture of Baronius

he had perhaps died before the Roman Synod, in which

by one hundred and twenty-five Bishops B. Hormisdas was reintegrated

to the Apostolic See, and were condemned

Petrus Altinas and Laurentius Nucerinus: and

so S. Paschasius would have died at the end of the fifth century or the beginning

of the next: but by the testimony of S. Gregory at least in the times

of Pope Symmachus he died, and so a whole half

century earlier, than Martin was ordained Bishop of Dumium.

[7] Perhaps to him Eugippius inscribed the Life of S. Severinus. Baronius for the year 496 no. 50 judges this man

to be the same Paschasius the Deacon, to whom Eugippius

the Presbyter inscribed the Life of S. Severinus the Apostle of the Norici,

which with the letter of both we gave VIII January,

where Eugippius asserts he was writing two years having elapsed after

the Consulship of Importunus, to others Opportunus, hence in the year

DXI, and so the death of S. Paschasius could be referred to the year

DXII, in which still ruled the universal Church Symmachus,

and the Capuan S. Germanus. Therefore agree the name,

the time, and the rank of the Ecclesiastical order, which make the matter

probable enough, not altogether certain; since several

of the same name could have been Deacons, and they erudite.

His books on the Holy Spirit, called most correct and luculent

by S. Gregory, were first published at Cologne

in the year MDXXIX; then transferred to the Library

of the Old Fathers, are often reprinted, under this Preface, which

for some specimen of doctrine and style in this place merits,

with some typographical errors corrected, to be tasted. The Catholic faith

was diffused into the whole world through the Patriarchs

and Prophets, dispensers of grace, Beginning of the books on the Holy Spirit. with the Holy Spirit

inspiring. This the Apostolic solicitude

and perfection, just as through the holy Pages it had dilated,

so through the salutary brevity of the Symbol with marvelous brevity

it collected, and as if through diverse species of remedies

disposed in one body, and as

from innumerable spices a precious unguent

made, whose odor all the ends of the earth with the power

of spiritual fragrance filled, that in the very

* assent of the universality the virtue might appear. And because it is fitting that

to those erring, as if to little ones and ignorant, * the first elements

of Christian tradition we repeat, in this

perfection of the Symbol both unity is evidently opened and

trinity; while a thrice-repeated confession, to the Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, returns one obedience of belief…

In this number therefore and mystery,

in which holy Abraham over the innumerable nations

triumphed, of the Elders (in the Nicene Synod)

the enemy of the faith Arius, under one preaching of Father and Son and Holy

Spirit I confound. Whence also

it is to be understood that those (Macedonians) who against the Holy

Spirit, under eternal damnation blaspheme,

either without * profession of the Symbol baptized, or in

the very Symbol of faith to the Font lied, before

which every man renouncing the devil confesses,

I believe also in the Holy Spirit … this is

to say, I confess Him, I worship Him, I adore Him,

The whole me into His right and dominion I deliver and

transfuse. In the reverence of this profession all the obediences

owed to the divine name are contained.

* al. Ascent,

* first.

* progress

* to himself

* and brow

ON SS. ALEXANDER AND GALLA

AT THE ARVERNI IN GAUL.

From S. Gregory of Tours and more recent Fasti.

Alexander, at the Arverni in Gaul (S.)

G. H.

Joannes Molanus, as already in S.

Paschasius we admonished, Memory in Fasti, in the first

edition of his Auctarium to Usuard,

in smaller character and prefixed

by the letter Q, to denote that

he received them from any of the more recent

collectanea,

on this day XXXI May reports

first S. Paschasius, and then subjoins: At the Arverni

of the Holy Confessors Alexander and Galla,

of whom Gregory of Tours in the book on Confessors

ch. 36. Petrus Canisius the memory of both

transferred into his German Martyrology. Baronius

S. Paschasius, because Roman Deacon, inserted

in the Roman Martyrology: of these he was silent. But Ferrarius

in the Catalogue of Saints, who in the Roman Martyrology

are not, reported them in these words: At the Arverni of the Holy

Confessors Alexander and Galla. Andreas

Saussajus in the Gallican Martyrology, on the day IX

March, has these things: Likewise there, at the Arverni, of S. Alexander

Confessor, from whose tomb the necessity of the sick

with dust scraped off attains health.

The same again in his Supplement on this XXXI

May writes these things: At Clermont of the Arverni, of the Holy

Confessors Alexander and Galla: of whose

marvelous sanctity the encomia S. Gregory in his

book on the Glory of Confessors narrated.

[2] When the said Gregory of Tours in chapter 35, had treated

of a sepulchre, and in Greg. of Tours. broken open in the basilica of S. Venerandus, then

ch. 36, writes these things: There are however in this place many

sepulchres, which, as we have said, are proved to be of the faithful.

For there is held there a tomb, contiguous on the left of this one,

in length, breadth, height, and every

position alike. On the upper front of this

is held written, Of holy memory of Galla.

There is also no less that sepulchre with many merits

glorious, between the exit of the basilica of S. Illidius,

and the entrance of the temple of B. Venerandus, in a high place set:

in which they say a certain religious Alexander

was buried: of which the frequent necessity of the sick,

with dust scraped off the drink taken, forthwith

attains health. Whence so frequent

medicament is attained, that on account of the assiduous

advantages of benefits, perforated by the beholders is seen.

So Tours.

[3] She does not seem to have been the wife of S. Eucherius. Baronius, when on the day V October had reported S. Galla,

in the Notes adds: There flourished in Gaul another likewise

Galla, who was the wife of Eucherius, of whom Ado XVI

November, of whose sepulchre, mentions Gregory

of Tours on the Glory of Confessors chapter XXXVI.

Ado on the said XVI November brings forth a long encomium of S.

Eucherius Bishop of Lyon, in which at the end these things

he has: His wife Galla, in holy habit serving God,

having entered his cave, all there of her life's

time in the study of religion she passed. Of her

and her daughters, on the said day more largely will be treated. As much

as we can collect, from this S. Galla easily

is distinguished she, who far from the Arverni in Dauphiné

lived and died: where to have been her son's cave indicates

the same Ado, when he writes, that Eucherius lay hidden over

the river Druentia, retired in a cave. Jacobus

Branche, in the Lives of the Saints (male and female) of Auvergne

and Velay, published in the year 1652, the words of S.

Gregory in French rendering, elsewhere they are noted on the day cites the book of the churches

of Clermont, in which at least mention is made of a church,

built to S. Alexander. Of the present cult he has nothing,

a man otherwise diligent in such matters; whence we suspect

him to have plainly perished, nor any memory of Relics

to remain. We wonder however, that since the said Author

cites also Molanus, and this man places SS. Alexander and Galla

on day 31, he himself locates them on day 3; and we fear lest in

ordering the papers, in which were contained the lives written by him,

the latter cipher escaped his eyes, and so to day 3 they are referred.

ON S. HELMTRUDE THE RECLUSE,

IN THE PADERBORN DIOCESE OF WESTPHALIA.

CENT. X OR XI.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Helmtrudis, Recluse in the Paderborn Diocese of Westphalia (S.)

G. H.

Herisia, commonly Herse, by a very ancient

College of Canoness Virgins,

after the year DCCCLXXV, The Saint born at Herisia

founded, a notable place, and once adorned

with many Relics of Saints,

is described by several on XX

May, where of S. Saturnina the Virgin

and Martyr, the old Patroness

there, is treated. Of the same, in a certain old Appendix of the

Ursuline Acts in Crombach, thus is read,

so that at the same time the notice of the same Saint seems to us to be given,

of whom we proposed to treat in the title: There is a place in

Saxony (Lower namely, embracing all Westphalia)

Herse, and there even today a glorious congregation

of Sanctimonial women, where a certain Recluse, of incomparable

life and special merit, Helendruda,

born and nourished, the course of most holy life completed,

now corporeally rests in peace; although

some part of her last time on a mountain, on which

the city Iburg, of the Osnabrück diocese, is situated, in the same

sanctity she passed. and there buried she shines with miracles. Of her life and sanctity

so many are witnesses, as either today are at Herse Sanctimonials,

or thence have been: and most truly;

as God with the words of men assenting.

For even today, at her tomb, frequently

is restored light to the blind, gait to the lame, the sick to

the use of life are restored, and those possessed by unclean spirits

are cleansed.

[2] So he, not indeed a most ancient writer, and who

before not many centuries lived, she is inscribed in the Calendar of Paderborn. in the judgment of Crombach

in the Ursuline Vindicia p. 14; an apt witness however of the cult

of S. Helendruda (as he himself calls her) among the Herisians

most known in his time. Wherefore I cannot doubt, that

she herself it is, whose name on this day with the names of SS. Cantius,

Cantianus, Cantianilla, and Petronilla, our Joannes

Gamansius found in the same old hand, in a very ancient,

as he says, and notable parchment Calendar of the

Cathedral Library of Paderborn, thus written,

Helmtruth, Handmaid of God and Recluse; in the same

manner namely, by which elsewhere in the same Calendar, with the proper

Patrons of the diocese concurring, their names to the names of old

Saints and others common are ascribed,

as he says: her bones seem to have been scattered by heretics. wherefore he does not doubt to write her Saint absolutely,

in his Notes to the aforesaid Calendar. Now

that of her no veneration among the Herisians, perhaps not even

memory remains, seems to have been done by the war of Christian,

heretical Duke of Brunswick, in which the Relics of the temple,

with tombs overturned, through the whole pavement were dispersed,

nor without confusion by the holy Virgins

again were collected; unless perchance by some earlier

devastation of the monastery the sepulchre of Helmtrudis happened

to be violated, and elsewhere her body to be removed or dispersed.

[3] Appearing to her S. Cordula the Ursuline, To her, as the same Ursuline Appendix has, with a long series

of times, after the Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins,

elapsed, appeared in vision S. Cordula; and her,

as if her tent-companion, whether she recognized her, asked.

She however, although holy and in mind

now next to God, yet still corruptible, and

as if corruption not bearing incorruption, of divine

beauty and gravity the person abhorred:

for the Virgin of God beyond all human craft was clothed

marvelously, a crown intertwined with lilies and roses alternating bearing

on her head. The Handmaid

of God therefore, breathing from fear, unworthy of the Majesty's

acknowledgment to be replied; When I, she said,

am subject to the laws of carnal sin; you however,

now into the order of the Heavenly assumed, are alien

from all corruption. Then she, You should know, said, me

to have been one of the sacred number of Cologne Virgins;

who, with them in the contest of Christ triumphing,

one night I survived; and the following day, desirous of death,

of my own accord I offered myself to the executioners; and so in Christ

dying, neither did I desert my Sisters, nor did I lose

the social crown of Martyrdom. she asks and obtains a proper feast at Cologne. Therefore when of those

most glorious passage day with due now devotion

all Cologne venerates, of my name not even brief

still recollection is held. Hence now coming

I enjoin to you this of obedience, that to the Sanctimonial women,

devoutly watching at our bodies, you announce

from me; that, when of my Sisters' triumphal

glory they celebrate, on the next day to me also

something of veneration they pay: because by no means is it

expedient for them, that among all who there rest,

of my name only the reverence be none. And when she

inquired of her name, she was ordered by the Virgin

to behold her brow, that this name to her was indubitably

she might know, which there she found engraved.

She obeyed, saw, and read; and with distinct syllables,

Cordula, distinctly written she found. The Handmaid

of God therefore reported to the Sanctimonial women the divine oracle;

and was believed and then established, that when of the Holy

Virgins the solemnity is held, the next day to S.

Cordula's praises be devoted.

[4] B. Imadus, after the year MLII Bishop of Paderborn,

left to his Church a Martyrology augmented by his proper study,

where, on this last of May, is prescribed

to be made the Commemoration of Hildruda, she is inscribed in the Martyrology, Handmaid of God

and at Herisia Recluse, to whom was revealed S.

Cordula. So one and the same name is variously written,

and her cult some more and more is confirmed; even if

neither Saint nor Blessed title is ascribed. She is venerated

S. Cordula on XXII October, on which day more

is to be treated of her: meanwhile from Crombach p.

498 I note, that Bruno II, Archbishop of Cologne,

consecrated some altar of S. Cordula,

in the year MCXXXV, and of the festivity, as already at that time, and seems to have lived in the 10th or 11th century.

distinct from the previous day, makes mention. If this is so, it seems

altogether that Helmtrudis, or (as others write) Helintrudis

or Helendrudis, lived in the X or XI century;

of whom would that more had been written, and at some time could be brought into

light. Herself meanwhile here placed, can be expunged,

what in the order of the Praetermitted of her we wrote,

as more fully treating of her on the day of S. Cordula in the month

of October.

ON B. MATHILDA THE VIRGIN

OF DIETZ AS PROVOSTESS, ABBESS OF OETHILSTÄDT,

OF THE ORDER OF CANONS REGULAR OF S. AUGUSTINE. AT DIETZ IN BAVARIA.

ABOUT MCLX.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

On her Family, Life, Translation and Cult.

Mathilda, Abbess of the Order of Canons Regular of S. Augustine, at Dietz in Bavaria (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Wigulejus Hundius, besides the Metropolis

of Salzburg, which augmented with several

Additions and divided

into three volumes published

Christophorus Gewoldus, From the most noble Andechs family, indiscriminately

under the name of Hundius accustomed

to be alleged; wrote also the genealogical

Stemma of the Bavarian nobility,

in the year MDXCIII printed in German: in which from

page 20 he largely traces the family of the ancient Counts

of Andechs, Berthold father of B. Mathilda, of Dietz, of Hohenwart,

of Wolfratshausen, of Thaur, Dukes

of Dalmatia, Meran, Vogtland, Margraves

of Istravia, and Counts Palatine of Burgundy: and then p.

26 describes from this family Berthold, Count

of Andechs and Dietz, father of B. Mathilda

the Virgin: who in the XII century of Christ in the monastery of Dietz,

in upper Bavaria situated at the lake of Amber, by the ancients

called Damasia, lived holily, and after death with many miracles

shone. she founds the church of Dietz around 1132. The same Hundius in volume 2 of the Metropolis p. 259 of

various foundations of this monastery treats: and then,

The third foundation, he says, was made in the year MCXXXII by the illustrious

Princes Berthold Count of Andechs

and Otto Count of Wolfratshausen, together

with their wives Sophia and Laurita and their children;

who their fortress Damasia turned into a monastery,

constructing there a church in honor of B.

Mary the Virgin, endowing it with movables and estates

and also with several privileges, by reason of advocacy

and of any exactions offering it to the protection

of B. Peter and of the Apostolic See. And p. 261 is subjoined

the Diploma of Pope Innocent II, given on the said

year MCXXXII. Behold for you the parents of B. Mathilda, who below

in her Life are named Berthold Count, and his

wife Sophia, the brothers of the Virgin: Berthold II Count and Otto XII Bishop of Bamberg. called by others Countess Amertalia. Brothers

were Berthold II Count of Andechs, who having taken

a wife propagated the line; and Otto Duke of Meran and

Count of Andechs, made in the year MCLXXVII Bishop

of Bamberg, who in the year MCLXXXII dedicated the Church

of Dietz in honor of B. Mary the Virgin, with present

Hartwic Bishop of Augusta, and with several estates

endowed it, dying in the year MCXCVI, and so to be distinguished

from S. Otto I Bishop of Bamberg, in the year MCII consecrated,

and in the year MCXXXIX dying on the second day of July, whose

then Life is to be given. Sisters of Mathilda were B. Euphemia,

Abbess of the monastery of S. Alto, in the year MCLXXX

deceased, and at her sister's in the church of Dietz buried,

to whom is said the day XVII of June to be sacred: Sisters B. Euphemia and Gisala mother of 4 Bishops. and Gisala, married

to Diepold Count of Berg in Suevia, from whom were begotten

Udalric II, Bishop of Passau, by some

called Diepold; and his brother Magnoaldus, likewise

Bishop of Passau, then Otto II, Bishop

of Freising; and Henry likewise II, Bishop

of Würzburg; and finally Ulric, in his father's place Count of Berg,

and others indicated by Hundius.

[2] Among other monasteries quite many, by this family

constructed and founded, in Hundius p. 20 in the first

place is named Lanckenheim, in the highlands of Vogtland,

three miles from Kulmbach toward

Bamberg, in whose diocese it is situated; most magnificent, the Life of the Blessed written by the Lanckenheim monk Engelhard.

says Jongelinus, and most munificent

cloister of the Cistercian institute, in the year MCXXXII

founded by Otto Count of Orlamünd, Prince

of Meran, and his wife Lady Beatrice, and

the son of both Otto Lord in Mistelfeldt in

the next village, whose temple was the citadel of the Dukes

of Meran. Of this cloister the Monk Engelhard, formerly

Abbot perhaps of another unnamed monastery, the Life

of B. Mathilda gravely wrote: which full of solid

virtues, not without merit one would call a treasure,

as Henricus Canisius prefaces, who inserted it in book

five of his Antique Lessons, beyond

which others assert some less solid things, as we shall note below.

There is not indicated there the year or day of death: Andreas

however Brunner in part 3 of the Bavarian Annals from p. 421

handing down an epitome of her life, asserts that she died

in the year MCLX. Another epitome was published by Matthäus Rader in volume 1

of Bavaria Sancta, where he wrote that she was buried IV Kal. March,

as we then said among the Praetermissi, and we rejected to this

XXXI May; on which her to have died in the year MCLX more certainly we are taught

by the writing of Lord Simon Provost of Dietz, and

of Lords Innocentius Keferhoher and Thomas Durr successive

Deans. The latter of these for the anniversary day prepointed

alleges the old Breviary of Dietz, and likewise

the old Calendar, and the Chronicle of the monastery written in the year MDXX

(all which also define the year of death MCLX),

and finally the Martyrology written from the year MCCCCLXXIII,

from which yearly on such day these things are read,

In the monastery of Dietz the deposition of B. Machtildis,

Virgin and Abbess, daughter of the Founder of the same

cloister. In the prefaced Calendar however is noted (the same

testifying) the death of Machtildis III Kal. June. Of which diversity

the reason seems to be, that on XXX May the Blessed died,

but on XXXI was deposited with solemn office of obsequies. Year and day of death from old writings. The same

Thomas Durr sent to us in proving form, under the attestation

of the Imperial Notary Joannes Georgius Horrmann, in the year

MDCLXXXII, on the XIX of October, obligating his faith,

from an old codex of the monastery of Dietz a richer compendium of the Life

described around the year MDXXXV; and another older

from the Chronicle of the same place, by Fr. Sebastianus Mecheloher,

alumnus of the same Dietz cloister, compiled around

the year of the Lord MCCCLXV.

[3] In this (for both contain nothing which the Acts

aforementioned do not have) by another hand is found afterwards

joined this little appendix; Bones in 1468 elevated, In the year of the virginal birth

MCCCCLXVIII, on the day of the Holy Martyrs Gordian

and Epimachus, that is X May, with the venerable

Provost in Dietz Mag. Joannes Schon procuring,

were exhumed the bones of B. Machtildis, daughter of our

Founder, Count Berchtold, by license of D. Georgius de

Godtzveld, Vicar of the Most Reverend D. D. Petrus Card.

Presbyter of the title of S. Vitalis at Rome and Bishop of the Augsburg

diocese. And the bones of the same Machtildis were found

incorrupt, in a stone sarcophagus, in the depth

of the earth, most decently enclosed, with flesh and garments

only consumed, except the veil of her head, which

was found resting on the head, by which she consecrated herself bride

to Christ. She lay there in the dust of the earth

three hundred and eight years. The aforesaid venerable

Provost, like the Evangelical man, who a treasure

hidden in a field found, but yet

did not wish to hide it; the relics of B. Machtildis which he found,

therefore in the place above, in a Parian sepulchre

elevated from the earth, the same honorably deposited; that whoever

visiting the choir, in 1488 they are translated. devotion's object he might

have. But in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXXVIII, the Venerable

Father D. Joannes Zallinger, of the said D.

Provost Schon successor as Provost, considering

the people's devotion and concourse to the sepulchre of B. Machtildis,

wished the precious pearl found,

namely her Relics, not to hide,

but to provide free access to anyone wishing to visit:

for to come to the prior place was not always convenient,

because the Convent frequently there in the choir

was attending divine praises. Wherefore the said D. Provost

Zallinger devoutly transferred the sepulchre with the Relics

to the chapel of S. Sebastian, which is open

to either sex.

[4] I judge it should be considered besides, the stone found

in the sepulchre of B. Machtildis placed under her head, the stone found under her head is in honor;

which the aforementioned Lord prelates, for augmenting

the devotion of Christ's faithful, in the Northern apse

of our greater church of Dietz, around the outer

altar of the most blessed Virgin Mary, had affixed

by those skilled in the masonry art. And there so great

a fervor of devotion grew in the hearts of the faithful, that he,

who shall have kissed the stone, presumes to have happier

success in his works. Nor does that portent of devotion suffice them,

but also by common contribution

of Christ's faithful they make a great wax

candle; which those, whose business it is,

in the time of tempest must light, lest tempest

and hail harm us. And since to follow the good footsteps of predecessors

is praiseworthy; the Reverend

in Christ Father D. Hieronymus, she is invoked against tempests and hail. Provost,

successor of the same, wishing to provide an occasion

of augmenting divine cult to posterity (for examples

move) a small pectoral image

of B. Machtildis silver, adorned in old pattern,

renewed; and a larger, with whole human

effigy, of pure silver made. The aforesaid Dean

Thomas, in letters dated XXX October in the year MDCLXXXII,

when he had affirmed, that grows day by day, with the very Saint's

glory, especially the rural people's devotion, who

a singular indeed against aerial tempests and the hail

of crops Patroness her venerate, her silver statue is renewed,

and with great fruit and joy experience; subjoins,

that her Feast, by recent indult of the Most Reverend

Augsburg Ordinary, will be celebrated in posterity

annually, with Office and Mass from the common

of Virgins, on Tuesday after Trinity Sunday,

and is in the parish of Dietz that day in

market also festive: the feast is transferred to Tuesday after Trinity. when before this her Birthday day

was thus held on Wednesday of Pentecost Quattuor-tempora

by the Dietz-dwellers only. On what foundation,

I indeed know not: for in the year MCLX, on which the holy one is said

to have died, the day XXX or XXXI of May does not concur with the said Feria,

nor in any of those years in which the translation of the bones was made:

and the more freely I believe the day was changed,

because no certain cause of it appeared.

[5] She was not of the Benedictine but Augustinian Order. In MS. Florarium of Saints, on the day XXX January,

is reported the Memory of Mathilda the Countess, whom we judged

to be this Mathilda the Virgin, with the reader sent to

this XXXI May. Hugo Menardus and Gabriel

Bucelinus, the same on the day VI July inscribed in the Benedictine Martyrology,

and these is said to have followed the most recent author of the Benedictine

calendar extended in four volumes, Aegidius

Rhambeeck, Scyrensian Monk in Bavaria; and he alleges

the author of the Life Engelhard, as if he had asserted that the Benedictine

Rule had been kept by Mechtildis. But neither there

nor elsewhere appears any vestige or foundation

of such an assertion. On the contrary Pope Innocent II in

the cited above diploma, established that the Canonical Order,

according to the rule of B. Augustine, in the same church

in future times be conserved: and so B. Mathilda

in her Life no. 22, when she had asked from the rents of her dowry

bread to be given to the neighboring churches to be consecrated on the altar,

adds: That which I have asked, may your, pious Father Hartwic

Provost, grace provide me, and be confirmed

by the consent of all the Confraters and Lords

my Canons of this Church. And in the elogium

of the Provost Hartwic himself in Hundius, is said, that besides

the company of Canons, he ruled also the Sanctimonial women,

shut in a separate cloister; and that, with such moderation

and prudence, which the manifest sanctity of B. Mathilda their

Provostess commends. Hartwic was Provost from the year MCXXXII to

the year MCLXXIII, and so even to our age there

persevere Provosts, successors of those who under Hartwic

took up the Canonical Rule, that without controversy

it seems B. Mathilda must be ascribed to them.

The monastery of Oetilstetin also of the same as the Dietz

institute to have been, you would gather even from this, that from this for

its government Mathilda was sought. If anyone nonetheless

wished to doubt, against him is opposed the Bull of Sixtus IV

in the year MCCCCLXXXI, on XIII Kalends of November, of his Pontificate

year XI, given To the beloved daughters in Christ,

Abbess and Convent of the Monastery of Edelsteton,

of the Order of S. Augustine, of the Augsburg diocese. Of this

Bull an authentic copy we received, under the attestation

and seal of Augustinus Grath, Doctor and Apostolic Notary.

[6] Proper Office, The author of the Life suggests at the end, that he in the MS. codex

besides found a Hymn of S. Mathilda,

and the Office of Mass of the same: and is established from

the Appendix added after the Life, that to the elevated tomb,

and the venerable image of the Blessed engraved, votive even now

Sacred services are made, and many defectives are healed. The Mass nothing

proper has except this Collect, God who us

with the annual solemnity of B. Mechtildis your Virgin gladden:

grant that whom we venerate by office, also of pious

conversation we may follow by example. From the Office we received

one Hymn, with the Lessons of the second Nocturn.

The Hymn, to some Sapphic meter likeness

badly turned, thus begins; Lofty in merits, blessed in reward

&c. The Lessons, an elegant epitome of the Life contain,

worthy here to be read. IV. Mechthildis the Virgin flourished

in Germany, through that time, when especially

in it and elsewhere, of religious of both sexes Princes

and the rest of the nobility's piety and munificence,

almost into immensity grew the number of monasteries.

Wherefore also her parents, no less

illustrious in liberality toward God, than in highest birth,

founded two cloisters at Dietz in upper

Bavaria, on the Western side, where the river

Amber forms a lake; in one of which Canons,

in the other Canonesses they placed under the Rule

of S. Augustine. In this Berchtold the founder his

five-year-old daughter, in that himself he consecrated to God.

Mechtildis advancing in age and wisdom, the flower

of virginity, with ornaments of obedience and humility and the rest

of the virtues so heaped up, that from her Mistress's death

she alone seemed worthy, who should be over the rest,

but she alone resisted. V. Brought to the helm,

by example more than by word she instructed her subjects.

To no one harsher than to herself, with thin food, cheap

clothing she used. Always abstaining from baths, to eat flesh

or to drink wine she dared not, except once

or twice by superior power and command compelled:

nor on feathers ever, but on straw she lay. Idle words

so studiously she avoided, that one once

slipped from her she expiated with many tears and long penance.

By which exercise of virtues and

prudence of ruling she effected, that to govern the noble Canonesses'

Abbey in Suevia by the Bishop of Augsburg

she was summoned; whom into holy and bridely-of-Christ

decent discipline, gently together

and strongly, she reformed. VI. Endowed with the grace of healings,

she healed the infirmities of many.

From an energumen the evil demon by praying

she expelled, and the same dumb she made to speak. To a Sanctimonial

an eye, pierced by a needle, by touch she restored.

Foreseeing herself about to die, she wished to be brought back to Dietz,

that where she had given herself to Christ, there by Him she might be received.

Therefore preparing herself for the journey of eternity duly,

with a luculent sermon to the Virgins of Christ on charity and

concord of souls held, placidly

she fell asleep in the Lord, in the year of salvation one thousand

one hundred sixtieth. Her body, with the veil

of the head, after three hundred and eight years, from the earth elevated,

and in a marble tomb laid, with frequent devotion of the faithful

is venerated, and to those duly asking even today

dispenses diverse benefits.

[7] As to the orthography of the name, indicates

Simon the Provost, The name variously written. her name very anciently is written Mathilda,

in the Calendars of the dead of the monastery: but

later writers gradually varied, writing Mæthildis,

Methildis, Mahtildis, Mehthildis, Machtildis, Mechthildis,

Mæhtildis, and finally Mechtildis, as write

Rader and Brunner. We Mathilda with Simon call,

as we have written with the Roman Martyrology on

XIV March B. Mathilda Queen, wife of Henry

the Fowler King of Germany, nor do we doubt, but that thence the name

celebrated has been made among posterity.

LIFE

By the author Engelhard, of the Cistercian Order.

From the old Lessons of Henricus Canisius.

Mathilda, Abbess of the Order of Canons Regular of S. Augustine, at Dietz in Bavaria (B.)

BHL Number: 5686

BY ENGELHARD M.

DEDICATORY EPISTLE I.

[1] To the Lord Provost and to all the Brothers

in Dietz, Engelhard, poor

and modest, to flourish in the Lord not modestly.

A service I have served you

unknowing, I know not whether also unwilling,

would that also patiently bearing it. Your treasure

I have made known: I beg, pardon; this considering,

that to conceal the secret of the King is good, but

to reveal the glory of God is honorable. In this is the scruple,

which is not my concern, that I have made it known; yours

it was, and perhaps you complain with Esau, that I

have snatched away your blessing. If I had done this

a second time, rightly you would complain: For he supplanted me, says he,

a second time. Once I have worked for

you in writing the Life of B. Mathilda, would that the blessing

of the father in it I have merited, and herself be Rebecca

for me, lest she bring upon me a curse

instead of a blessing. Would that God may give me another Mathilda,

in whom I may merit a second blessing,

writing truth, praising God, proposing

example, extolling miracle. These have been done

in your Mathilda, indeed our, of whom

much asked, but little learned, I have written what

I have written; and more I would have done, if more or better I had known.

I would wish that with us now another Apollo would arise among you,

confidently acting for the Holy one, you also would be to me

Priscilla and Aquila, teaching me what I do not know, for

these things perhaps to be written. Yet there is place for you to merit

a blessing, that you may supply what I have omitted,

correct my errors, delete my falsehoods, and of my labors

in your charity make glory. Christ

is the virtue of God and the wisdom of God, virtue to the weak,

wisdom to the foolish; for both to be corrected take upon you in me

His office, supporting the weak, amending

the foolish: and consider this, that bread

He is, Those who eat me, saying, shall yet hunger: but

also a fountain, Those who drink me, shall yet thirst: lastly

that wisdom, Those who elucidate me, shall have life

eternal: and that, what is first, last I may set,

a stone He is, Those who work in me, He says, shall not sin.

DEDICATORY EPISTLE II.

[2] To the Illustrious Lady Countess N. Brother

E. once called Abbot, but now

poor of Christ in Lanchaim, the prayers

of a sinner and the service of a poor man. Asked by you

to write the Life of B. Mathilda the Abbess, I scarcely dare

to acquiesce, since I know it is difficult for the unlearned to please

learned ones with words. Those who according to weight and measure and reason

after the manner of God wish to constitute all things, and constituted

to show, I would have preferred those to have undertaken the work, and

to have taken from me the occasion or cause of being calumniated.

But these disdaining, and being occupied with Laws or Decrees,

I a rustic studier, will undertake the life

of the blessed woman, invoking the Holy Spirit author

of her sanctity, that the goods, which He conferred on her

to do, He may bestow on me to declare. But all of her things

I do not attain, because I do not know. For, as you know, scarcely an hour

I sat with you, in which the chapters to be recited to us I collected.

But neither did she herself when she lived wish her own or any things

to be known; when by the Lord's example bidding silence about herself,

her virtues could not lie hidden, but virtue itself cried out.

May the piety of the Holy one help me, may she help the unworthy

by her own merits, that if to the masters and wise of the world

by writing I displease, I may please her to whom the Holy one approved herself;

who in life did not wish to be praised, because she feared; after

death, because she does not fear, the pious admits the praise of piety. b

There were inserted Chapter headings, whose words we here join, and in numbers convert, in our manner distinguished. These are the Chapters.

1 Of what family she was born.

2 Grown up, she abstained from flesh and wine.

3 That she did not apply carnal medicine.

4 That she was obedient beyond human measure.

5 That she was patient in infirmities.

6 That she fled from lying.

7 How strict to herself, to others pious and clement she was.

8 That she is elected as Mistress.

9 That she is elected as Abbess in Oetilstetin.

10 How she lived in governance.

11 That the open cloister she herself enclosed.

12 How frequent in church she was.

13 That on straw without feathers she lay.

14 That fleeing honor she did not escape it.

15 Of how great compunction she was.

16 How much she wept for one idle word, and

that she did not laugh.

17 Going to the court, from water thrice she drank wine.

18 On a healed demoniac.

19 That she foresaw her death, and to Dietz

returned.

20 That to the gift of charity she admonished the Sisters.

21 That a tithe of her father's substance in Diengen,

was given to the church of S. Mary the Virgin in Dietz.

22 That by a marvelous event she once ate flesh,

drank wine, and once laughed.

23 That an eye, struck out by an awl, she restored.

24 On the exhortation of Provost Hartwic over

a sick woman.

25 How her exit Angels or demons observed.

26 That at death she rejoiced at the vision of S. Mary.

27 How to Chunradus she gave thanks.

28 That she invisibly communicated.

29 That at her passage there was pious weeping, but more

pious joy of all.

30 On a certain Chunradus, who from grave headache

was there cured.

31 On the glory of her exequies.

32 The hairs of the deceased cut against thunder

avail.

CHAPTER I.

Noble birth: monastic life. Office in Dietz: Oetilstetin Abbey received: Cloister procured.

[1] Therefore Mathilda, noble in flesh, but nobler in mind,

from Imperial blood drew her origin:

but to be of God's race, Born of an illustrious family, she had as more, through piety.

To this she had wholly turned herself, this she emulated,

this she studied; that no other father she knew, than

God; nor any other mother, than her, in which she was offered,

the Dietz church, namely her then

mistress. Indeed from Dietz blood, whence she drew

also her sanctity, daughter of a Prince of the land, and to the Son

of God in heaven in the same monastery with solemn oblation espoused,

she contended to please her Spouse so much,

that she despised earthly things and loved heavenly;

knowing two lords cannot be served, nor a virgin following

ignoble lovers can be loved by the most noble.

She had heard from David: Hear daughter, and see, and incline

your ear, as a five-year-old offered to the monastery, and the King will desire your beauty:

and so it was done. Ps. 44, 11. She heard in trembling, now

she sees in exultation; she inclined her ear, humble

and cheerful obedience exhibiting, and this in her

excited the King's desire. As a five-year-old she entered

the monastery; nor placed she foot outside, nor

tongue, nor mind, but neither from her mouth was heard

ever a secular word. Sweet little child

her childish things so maturely she did, that the mature in age,

not by word, but by example she corrected.

[2] She grew in body, grew also in mind, grew also

in virtue, she abstains from flesh and wine: more even than in age. She dared in fortitude

often to put her hand to strong things, to tame

her flesh by abstinence of flesh: not that the creature

of God which is good she should reject, but lest eating flesh

she should nourish the vices of the flesh. She abstained also from wine, in which is

luxury, that the wine which gladdens man's heart

in drunkenness she might often drink, and might say in the gladness of her heart,

A cluster of Cyprus is my beloved to me. Cant. 1, 13. Indeed the flesh

of that paschal Lamb, she often takes the holy Eucharist: of the Lamb taking away the sins of the world,

in remission of her sins frequently

she received, eating Him rather with mind than tooth,

and preparing herself for Him a clean temple, as in heart

so in body. Little this was in her eyes, she added greater things

to presume, with spirit aiding the weakness of sex.

She despised also baths, with Peter hearing; He who

is washed, needs not but to wash his feet: which also

I would not deny her to have washed, lest she hear that thunder,

If I shall not wash you, you shall not have part

with me. John 13, 10.

[3] More often weakened with Paul, she said; For when

I am weak, then I am stronger and more powerful; sick she does not admit medicine: gladly glorying

in her infirmities, that there might dwell in her the virtue

of Christ; certain and experienced, that virtue in infirmity

is perfected. 2 Cor. 12, Whence also carnal medicine

to her body she never exhibited, of Agatha ^c now companion

and similar. For what to her the sword in death

was lacking; with the sword however of the word of God daily was she wounded,

drawing all to herself, what in sermon, what in

reading she would read or hear; her flesh crucifying

with vices and concupiscences, fearing the punishments of gehenna,

and ambitiously seeking the heavenly promises.

[4] Nothing however did she do by her own arbitration. From the mouth of the Mistress

she wholly hung, that what she would prohibit, this one never

would presume; what she would order, never would she neglect,

never delay. So obedient she was, promptly obedient she leaves an unfinished letter: that the ancient

miracle of obeying she had drawn into use for herself,

and any unfinished work she would leave, as soon as

she would hear the voice of the one calling or commanding. Accustomed and learned

to write, with letters begun she was often found at the sound

of the Mistress calling or of the bell not to have completed,

that she might hear of herself the praise of the Lord, At the hearing of the ear

she obeyed me. 2 Reg. 22, 45. But also to a strong man comparing herself, of

whom Solomon; A man, he says, obedient shall speak victories;

victories was speaking our Mathilda, by conquering

her heart, by conquering sex, by conquering the devil. Prov. 21, 28. And

in the spirit of God made with God one spirit and one heart

(if indeed by the testimony of Paul, He who adheres to the Lord,

is one spirit) now in mind as on a clean

mountain she was eminent above: she beheld and despised below

her all things, singing and chanting in her heart that

song of chastity, the song of charity; The kingdom of the world

and all the ornament of the age I have despised, on account of the love

of my Lord Jesus Christ: whom I have seen by right faith,

I have sought by firm hope, I have loved by perfect charity. 1 Cor. 6, 17. So Mathilda

ours in the midst of the timbrel-playing maidens

sang in the ways of the Lord, For great is

the glory of the Lord.

[5] Virtue to virtue she joined, obedience to patience

preferring; and undertaking every scourge of infirmity

from God, of adversity from neighbor, of temptation from devil; strong in bearing adversities,

against none of these murmuring, indignant, or fighting back.

For when tempted by the devil, against him she with all

virtue opposed, rejected and despised: no one

even, except him, ever did she have as enemy. Greater than every

envy, the envious, if any there were, by charity she overcame,

by virtue confounded, by authority overwhelmed, by humility

prostrated, as she would have done to herself, if any against her

something contrived. For most noble of all to all

she made herself a handmaid, preferring herself to no one, comparing herself to no one;

made herself a vessel lost, but useful and to honor

for all who were in the house of God. If any

however, as is wont to happen, sometimes spoke, what could

offend, with deaf ears she strove to pass over; stopping

her ears according to the Prophet, lest she hear

blood; and turning away her eyes, lest she see vanities. Isa. 33, 27

Such silence she had imposed on herself, that you would have believed her

mute; but if she should speak, with an Angel you would think

you conferred.

[6] Lying so she avoided, so she abhorred, that no flesh

would accuse her: but also such she strove to be in

conscience, that according to Job her heart did not reproach

her in all her life. Job 27, 6. she preserves a pure conscience, Hence beloved by God

and men, when sought by the affection of many,

tempted by the little gifts of many, her turtledove

a turtledove keeping for herself, she despised gifts, rejected

flatteries, fled colloquies. Hence also her ^d Brothers

the Princes she scarcely permitted to see, and so briefly,

that for a moment to have sat by them sufficed: hence to them dearer, the more

their colloquies she refused. She knew that in much speaking

sin is not lacking, since scarcely to questions answering,

a placable tongue the tree of life in herself

she showed. From this not Sister, but their Lady

they named her, cultivated, and honored.

[7] So nothing she had proper, that nothing she called

her own; so common making her things to each individual, that singularly

nothing she allowed to be had above the rest; pious, clement, and humble to all, so pious,

so clement she was to all, so patient, so compassionate

to all, that of anyone the pain, her own

she believed; she rejoiced indeed by Paul's example with the rejoicing,

wept with the weeping, with the weak

was weakened, and with others' scandals burned. With these grey

senses, with these affections an old young woman, the age

of senility, an immaculate life she led, pleasing to greater

and to lesser. Rom. 12, 15. To all the dues she rendered, to Prelates

submission, to elders honor, to juniors

love: but also to the maidservants by asking she commanded, lest

her Lady they should call, but Sister. And so while

she fled, she did not escape honor; while she shows herself to all,

she has of all even unwilling the favor.

[8] Hidden under the bushel, the lamp shining and burning,

she wished to lie hidden: but what she wished, she could not: she was placed

upon the candlestick, that it may shine to those entering into

the house. That house of Dietz was widowed of its Mistress

her: there is grief and lamentation of all: but above

all of Mathilda, elected as Mistress, who would feel herself an orphan then for the first time,

when, as has been said, no other

mother she knew herself to have, another she despised. Counsels

were turned about substituting another: but every

vote took, who mixed the useful with the sweet. What more useful

would each one say, what sweeter would she hear, than

Let Mathilda rule us, govern us, command us!

The Lord made an abbreviated word; voice

is followed by effect, effect by gladness, gladness by

perseverance. Mathilda is made Mistress, grieves, refuses,

protests, who nothing enjoined, nothing asked

before had refused. She is compelled in the virtue of obedience,

obedient she does the work of the Evangelist, admonishing and

persuading concerning the kingdom of God, with faith, with fervor,

with sweetness. Acts 19, 8 To save one soul her own she had previously intended;

now she intends to save many, chastising

her body and reducing into servitude, lest perhaps to others

preaching she herself reprobate be found, and they say to her

as if in secret, Physician, heal yourself. Much

she had fasted before, watched more, prayed most;

nothing she thinks she has done. She girds herself, first

now snatching the arms of God's military, spiritual arms,

arms of God's power: she becomes another Judith, about to fight

with Holofernes; she becomes Esther, Aman the worst enemy

about to destroy; she becomes finally Mary, with timbrels

and choirs God's people about to lead. She exhorts

her subjects, Let us sing to the Lord, gloriously indeed

is He honored, praising herself the name of the Lord with

song, and magnifying Him in praise; beginning

with Jesus to do and to teach. she goes before by good example: First of all the Choir

she entered, to work she sat down, and tenacious of discipline all things

she mixed with piety, knowing according to the Apostle;

For corporal exercise is profitable to a little. 1 Tim. 4, 8 No

in food, no in clothing was difference,

except that she herself viler ones used, nor could

among others be otherwise discerned than by garment, not unclean

indeed, but vilest of all. Sign of her recognition

was the humility and cheerfulness of her face, so

noble, so distinguished, that in it she presented an Angel;

so grave, so mature, that nothing of petulance,

nothing of levity before her dared. So finally herself,

so her own she conducted, that the school of Christ was that house, so

joined to God by love, that according to the Prophet

no one's mouth would speak the works of men, and each

coming, hearing, and going away, would truly testify;

For God is with you: even today Mathilda,

as if living in body, is to them an example

of sanctity.

[9] Gold she was our Mathilda, which through fire

had passed: pure she seemed to all, even

into the crown of the highest King gloriously to be transferred,

drawn out by hammers, but still better to be drawn out.

Not enough was for God, that she had labored; to labor

He calls her again, to acquire for Himself a people

acceptable, follower of good works, and to call

not God's people, God's people. There was ^e one house

of the old churches; noble in persons, rich

in substance, whose ^f Abbess had died, and

religion together had departed, either before her, that the collapsed discipline at Oetilstetin be restored, or with

her: for it is the customary and just judgment of God, that

the negligence of discipline most certainly is the destruction of things and resources.

In those days there was no King in

Israel; and each one what to himself seemed right,

this he did. The house had fallen, the substance was wasted,

discipline was taken away. Of restoration were thinking,

to whom this was care or heart, that in the place

of God God might have glory, discipline might bloom again,

vices might cease, virtues anew be planted.

It was sought, by whom this might be done; and no one was found

worthy, who would open the book, except the lion of

the tribe of Judah, and Mathilda His handmaid Mistress of Dietz.

This one let them elect, say the Princes, to this one persuades

the Antistes. To this one we will obey, say the Sisters ^g.

This one we elect, this one we ask, say all. The

election is made, exultation is made. There is acclaimed, To God praise and glory, she is elected Abbess:

they implore for the elect favorable things, peace for the house, abundance

for things, discipline for morals. There was present God for these

things to be done, to be moved, and promoted, and with blessed end

to be completed. There is sent for her the title of election. Pontifical

authority commends, are joined the Princes' prayers, the Sisters' humble

and devoted petition, the supplication of the whole

family, but also the province's broad

promise of serving. All these, in the train of messengers,

commended in letters, confirmed by testimonies, approved by

persons. They come to the place, open the message,

give to the messengers letters' testimony, whose nobility

was able to be of more weight than the writing. Through the house fame

flew about and grief invades all, that the treasure

scarcely found and the best pearl they were

about to lose, by whose love the love of God had grown together for them,

so that they knew no other loves, except of God only and of Mathilda.

The petition comes to her, she blushed, refused, protested:

They have placed me, she said, as keeper in the vineyards,

my own vineyard I have not kept: enough for me as judgment

is one not to have kept, than after this that one

also to neglect. But the Episcopal authority ^h prevailed,

which the eloquence of messengers and actors aided,

so that she yielded, to be compared to Heroines of the Old Law. and there became God's will greater

than her own. The Sisters however and family persisted in

sadness, understanding the very great loss of their

profit, which each had in her presence. There acquiesces

another Rebecca, goes with the boys of Abraham,

comes to Isaac about to bear him daughters not few, who also

ran to meet her at the well of the living and seeing one. There she found

Him, possessing her soul in patience: if indeed

also Rebecca's patience leading to laughter, who

is Isaac, walking to the well of the living and seeing one of

Scripture: for there is no other laughter of the living,

except that which is from the promise of the word of God; but neither seeing,

except whose eyes God reveals, that he may consider the wonderful things

of the law of God. So set forth another Rachel, the sheep

of her father to water: for she fed the flock,

that one of cattle, this one of men: and behold Jacob drawing for her

water from the well, and watering the sheep with her, and making

them be brought back to pasture. Was there not also Sephora, whom

Moses defended from violent shepherds, that she might water the flock

with him equally, and finally also feed?

These things in figure happened to them. Mathilda for those three;

Isaac I say, and Jacob, and Moses, Christ

had, the flock with her feeding with that bread, who

descended from heaven, and gives life to the world; watering

them also from that fountain, which from Paradise goes forth,

and thereafter into four heads is divided, because into

four principal virtues divides itself. To this

sets forth Lady Mathilda with the Queen of Sheba

to hear the wisdom of Solomon, about to show herself friend,

dove, beautiful, not by her own merits, but by the gift

of Solomon's grace. She sets forth, I say, with the rejoicing

and exulting, she is received with joy: who would lead her down; with the weeping

and lamenting, who would dismiss her. Who would lose

a mass of gold, and not grieve? who a shining

pearl, and a precious gem of carbuncle,

and bear it equanimously? Think this for yourself of Mathilda.

But what is more grievous to those, to have lost her. But why

should I prolong the way long enough, and not lead her to her own?

show her to her own? She comes expected, and the blessing

of the Lord with her. She is received with song of gladness,

with kisses of exultation, into the embraces of the new mother of the family

rush the daughters, but also the whole following bows down

before the face of the lady. She is brought to rest:

but it is not rest, where she sees there must be labor, nor without

labor with grave damages must counsel be taken. There puts on

the mind of a man the strong woman, whose price is not

near, but far and from the uttermost ends is found.

She labors as if nothing she had done before, and labor of joy

was followed by fruit.

[10] A cause with men of fighting she had not

before, preferring to be called Sister, nor was she compelled to do earthly things: now at

her nod all things hung, and from Mary Martha

she would have been made, except at the feet of the Lord the best

part she had chosen for herself. Whence also the Lord answered

for her, providing for her of her solicitude solaces, men

outside, sisters inside collaborating, and faithful and prudent

in things to be done, supporting themselves wholly in

part of solicitude, and to the Lady deferring the fulness

of power. Sister Mathilda contended to be called,

without the addition of Lady, every high thing she despised

in name; but use exacted of the House and the Monastery's

rule, that Lady she be called and Abbess.

To this name she had to be ordained, and by the Bishop

solemnly to be blessed; to which by all means she would not have consented,

except both her house in its right she would have feared to diminish, and the gift

of God in herself to refuse. She consented therefore:

she is blessed, as Abbess she is blessed: and by blessing augmented. Augmented I say

by grace, sublimated to glory, not so much of name,

as of consummated virtue. You would see in her to the full

more fully added, to the perfect more perfectly, that the delights

of past time by new chastisement of flesh she would seem to redeem

by him, who would not know, in how great rigor before

she had lived. But indeed so she had tamed the flesh, that

now not against the spirit it lusted, but as

handmaid to lord she served; not unwilling, or

forced, but willing and spontaneous, and by the sweetness of virtue

delighted. She sang therefore in the ways of the Lord, for

great is the glory of the Lord; saying to God in her prayers,

In the way of your testimonies I have delighted,

as in all riches. This she did, this

she taught, and with the same affection after her her flock

she drew; like herself to the Evangelical woman, who in three

measures put leaven, until the whole was leavened.

Not however easy for one beginning: for hard is to leave the accustomed,

and to be more willing to forbid those illicit licenses

than to those illicit ones: but they were forbidden, with the Lord cooperating

with the Abbess, and confirming the sermon with following

signs. You ask which? The first sign

which the holy one gave, was herself. A noble young woman, of mistress-like form,

amiable in sight, such she was in morals, such

she was in motions, such in eloquence, such in companionship, that

no flesh could accuse her; nor would fame dare to lie

about her, which is the greatest grace, S. Ambrose

testifying, by which a virgin is commended. Such was

the mother of God Mary, such also Mathilda her handmaid,

imitating her in every discipline; imitating her, I say,

up to that divine birth, which was Mary's

singular privilege, and to her above her partners

in the fullness of grace set apart. But who is Mary's

son, He is Mathilda's spouse; so sweet to her, that

nothing she would not believe sweet, not pleasant she would reckon, in which

she could please Him. she renders her subjects mature and timorous: To persuade so efficacious

she was, that the hardest hearts she would soften, and by the sermon of the saving word

each light one to maturity she would correct,

and the corrected would say that of B. Job; What before to touch

my soul refused, now from anguish are my food. Job 6, 7,

So she had made them timorous, so penitent of past life,

that they would hear from the Apostle, What fruit then

did you have at that time in those things, in which now you blush?

for the end of those things is death. Rom. 6, 21 But she herself the form of the fear

of God was for them, in keeping His commands; in

so much, that with S. Job they could say, Always as if swelling

over me waves I have feared God, and his weight

I could not bear. Job 31, 33 Hence they were easy to be bent, and

whatever was twisted or bent back, she reduced to

line, called back to the rule; in weight, measure,

and reason all things constituting, and that poetic line

to herself saying,

There is a mode in things, there are certain limits,

Beyond and short of which the right cannot stand.

To the right so Mathilda intended, discreet in exacting work, that mercy

and judgment she would sing to the Lord, but with the Lord mercy

would she exalt above judgment. So she moderates

all things, so she separates each, that both the strong would seek more labor

for God, and the weak would not flee. Gen 33, 10

She would say in the spirit of discretion that of Jacob,

If my flocks in walking I make labor more,

all will die in one day. Strongly that of Solomon

exhorting she would say; Whatever your hand

can do, do you instantly work; for neither work,

nor reason, nor knowledge will there be in hell, where you

hasten. Eccl. 9, 10 And consoling she would add; Not are worthy

the sufferings of this time, for the future glory, which

shall be revealed in us. Likewise: A momentary and light

of our tribulation beyond measure on high

eternal weight of glory works in us. But also

that admiring, which eye has not seen, nor ear

has heard, nor into the heart of man has ascended, what God has prepared

for those who love Him; Which, she says, she softens hearts by benignity: are such

and so great, that for them light it is to bear vigils, fasts,

or any harsh things. This life proved and tongue,

placing the hand on the tongue, deed on word; nay the finger

placing on her mouth, that deeds might precede words,

nor others would she teach, what more and previously she herself

had not done. With such piety's clemency she presided,

that not by word or by office's name was she held mother,

but by deed and truth; granting to each before her so much

confidence, that nothing they would conceal of their conscience

from her, but in the manner of Adam and Eve to her naked were:

naked, I say, in heart, not in body; in purity,

not in temerity; not in shamelessness, but in innocence.

[11] She added still to make greater fruit, in

the glory of her Spouse, to prohibit the access of men, against the access of men she introduces enclosure. that the truth

of chastity might have testimony also from those, who

are outside; nor would the adversary have anything to say

against them for the sake of detraction. She speaks about this to the Sisters,

contradicting some she hears, but does not

heed. She insists on speaking with them about the proposal of chastity, the great vow

confirmed by profession, the fragile sex,

the multiform enemy, nor with him in the field

to engage was safe for women; but according to Martin's sentence,

it was enough for praise, if within the camps they

contain themselves; but most foul, if either they to them, or

they to them frequently approach. Flowers also of the Scriptures

for persuading chastity she plucked many.

There smelled very many the odor of life from them,

so that they sought their own enclosure; some the odor

of death received, that to be enclosed altogether they refused.

The word came outside, was accepted as

if from God sent, and to God by prayer entrusted.

The Bishop is summoned, the word previously hidden is laid open;

wills are sought; are found

diverse: but at last, except a few, all

after the Abbess turned. Praises to God and thanks

are given, those willing to remain are enclosed, those refusing to be enclosed

are dismissed to their own will. Then at last

flourished the garden of the Lord, and his shoots

as a paradise of pomegranates with apple-tree

fruits. Those previously with Soldiers customary colloquies

are turned to Angels; and in the holes of

the rock, in the caverns of the wall were turned the doves,

in the wounds of Christ and in the frequency of Angels

happy, by themselves were occupied. They ran through

paradise with desire, and through jubilee amenities

were borne in their hearts, and the Spouse with weeping invited

to the garden, that He may be fed among lilies, where

with each individual virtue each would say to herself, How sweet

to my jaws are your eloquences, above honey and the comb

to my mouth, but to speak of the world, was bitterer than wormwood.

So flourished the garden of the Lord, which Mathilda had sown

for Him, with the help of the Holy Spirit, beautiful

to see, sweet to taste, pleasant to

smell, but tender to handle. New things

indeed she had planted, and lest they be carelessly moved by secular

tongue, diligently she guarded. Furthermore spiritual

learned men she rejoiced to admit as waterers, asking

each to pour out his vials, and with the word of God

to refresh her plants, to cherish the beds, beds

planted with aromatics. So Mathilda did, days through

individual ones offering holocausts through individual ones, saying

to God: Perfect the vine which your right hand planted,

and let that singular wild beast be far from it: your spirit

good let work good in it. Therefore the daughters of God from the sons

of men removed, above men they strove to be,

with Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord, and

hearing His word; with mother above them rejoicing,

that they were praised by the voice of God, because the best part

they had chosen for themselves.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The illustrious virtues and miracles of Mathilda now Abbess.

[12] What zeal she had, what fervor, I have not been silent before;

but now as if beginning afresh,

and as an eagle her youth in

God's service renewing, she began to seek lofty things, and as if

not to walk on earth, but to say with Paul,

Our conversation is in heaven. Phil. 3, 20 Frequent in church, Frequent in church

she was, most truly cohering in mind to God, in conversation

to Angels, in cohabitation to Saints, of whom she rejoiced

to be present at the Relics. If anyone sought her elsewhere,

he would not find her; but having found her there, to knock

he would not dare, with the Spouse standing over her, prohibiting and

saying; I adjure you daughters of Jerusalem, do not awaken,

nor make to wake the beloved, until she shall wish.

Such she showed herself at the hour of prayer, that to God would seem

to do injury, who would have wished to draw her away from Him,

and Him saying to Mathilda; Who touches you, touches

the pupil of my eye. Hence she adhering to God, and

being one spirit with Him gloried; His left,

she said, under my head, and His right shall embrace

me: and so in peace in the same I shall sleep

and rest. How sweetly she slept, hidden

in the hidden of God's countenance from the conversation of men, she adheres to Christ through contemplation:

protected in the tabernacle of God from the contradiction

of tongues! O happy soul, how often was given to you

to dispose ascensions in your heart in the valley of tears,

and to go from virtue to virtue, lastly

to see the God of gods in Sion, and to say with Paul;

We all with revealed face beholding the glory of the Lord,

are transformed into the same image from

clarity to clarity, as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3, 18,

How often did it befall you in the manner of Moses to veil your face,

on account of your cheeks moist with tears, receiving

from your Father with Axa irrigation upper and lower:

and as if to inquirers to say; The King introduced me

into the wine-cellar, ordered in me charity. Such

did you go forth from the sight of the Lord, full of graces, splendid

and wise, from the consortium of the Lord's word;

profiting by contemplating and praying more in Christ,

the virtue of God and wisdom of God, than by reading

on the page, or hearing masters in school. How often

in your little bed through nights did you seek whom she loves,

nay whom your soul has loved? for charity never

falls. Although the little house of charity your flesh in

death will fall, yet your soul, between flesh and

charity in the middle, by the help of charity and the testimony of truth

never does not live. Rejoice and be glad

now, daughter of Sion, when through a mirror and in a riddle

you see the King of glory; but as much as to one walking in the flesh,

and not according to the flesh fighting was permitted

to see. You raised yourself above yourself however, saying

in your heart: O who will give wings to me as to a dove,

and I shall fly, and shall rest. Ezek. 28 You stretched to those

caverns of the wall, of the wall in part destroyed,

with stones of fire falling from it, in whose midst

that Lucifer, Ezekiel testifying, walked happy,

until by the fire of God he burned unhappy, when alien fire,

that is, envy, he kindled: whence also he fell, and

the third part of the stars according to John after

him drew, and from princes of light became princes

of darkness, against whom for us is the contest,

not against flesh and blood. Apoc. 12 These meditating

Mathilda our, nay God's, because if we knew

her according to the flesh, but now we know her not so any more,

and herself according to the flesh recognized no one; she burns with desire of the heavenly fatherland,

To me, she said, to adhere to God is good, to place in

the Lord God my hope. Eph. 6, Ps. 72 What is behind she has forgotten,

into the things in front extending herself, the higher thirsting,

the eternal embracing in mind. In that Angelic ^b manner

her eye she frequently sharpened, purging

it from the dust of earthly desire, anointing it with the antimony

of heavenly wisdom, that wisdom itself she might see,

composing all things, and the individual orders of heavenly

virtues composed in wisdom, disposed

in that very manner. O how desirable to her, to consider

wisdom, reaching from end to end strongly,

and disposing all things sweetly, building

that Jerusalem of living stones, which in part

reigns, in part still is in exile, and from exile

returned daily receives, and those caverns of the wall

of Jerusalem in holy souls rebuilds! She attended

to those many mansions in the Father's house, given for merits,

sufficing each, abounding in delights,

with perpetual joys, mixed with Angels, distinct

in glories, but united by the bond and glue of charity.

To go pleasant to her from virtue to virtue; to go,

I say, in mind, to circle in desire that temple,

which is in heaven; to offer the incense of praise to God, to individual

orders also of Angels to give glory from

her heart's sacrifice. She brought to those blessed souls

to each praise, asking intercession, and preparing

for herself with them the lot of beatitude. What think you

was hers with Mary, mistress of virgins, queen of virgins?

O how often she sighed to her, speaking with her, and raising

herself in her bed with her, from the malice of the world, from the snares

of the devil, from the anguishes of her sojourn. This

she had as singular consolation, this prince of contemplation,

this form and order of her life;

through this she had access to the Spirit, leader of her spirit.

But also Holy Scripture she applied as mistress, that

this rather she might follow, contemplating each of His mighty works. than her own sense to

the contemplation of God. With these as guides she walked secure,

entering into the holy of holies, with holy heart

contemplating that admirable tabernacle, the exemplar

of that which was shown to Moses, and was said;

See, do all things diligently, according to the exemplar

which has been shown to you. She admired the golden altar,

which is before the eyes of the Lord, and under the altar the souls

of the slain; the throne also of God, on which the twenty-four

elders sat in their seats: but also

the four animals, having six wings, and full of eyes everywhere;

then also those one hundred forty

four thousand, singing the new canticle; but

also Abraham's bosom, receiver of holy souls;

and finally, that great crowd, which

no one can number, from all peoples, tribes,

and tongues, standing before the throne, and palms

in their hands. These and like things to contemplate

was Mathilda our wont, more learned in seeing,

than I in saying; but also happier in experience,

than the inexperienced in knowledge. Exod. 25, Apoc. 4, Luke 16, Still it pleases

to follow our Abbess, having entered into the King's

inner court: but the splendor, with which she is fed, to bear

I cannot, with eyes reverberated as if I were going blind,

and I cry behind her back; Enter into the joy

of your Lord; for so you are worthy: and remember me,

when it shall be well with you, that you may suggest to the Spouse, that

He may remember me.

[13] This work of hers, nay leisure not idle

in church: this her customary doing through the day most sweet, solicitous of the daughters' conveniences she sleeps on straw,

but also of night in this she consumed very much, or

rather all. Whence lest the bed should flatter her, and

she should be more sluggish to rise; not on feathers, but on

straw she lay. But the straw too she would have rejected, except she had fled

praise, and most willingly would have rested on the bare ground,

or on stone. Yet to the Sisters

more clement everywhere than to herself, she provided beddings,

cushions and linens of bedding, and cleanliness of garments,

saying nothing of this hurts the souls, if only

they were not held proud or superfluous. Mode

in all modes she commended, which however she denied to herself

in benefits of the body, not sparing the body;

yet she preserved in the rest, exacting from no one more than

she could. Cleanliness, as has been said,

she loved with poverty; and that to the honest she might satisfy,

she did not wish to seem poor, but to be. A sack therefore

of straw for feathers under herself she had, which covered

with linen would show pomp, and price not have. But what care?

She cared with great preparation her heart for the Lord, seeking

in her bed, whom her soul loved; but not finding,

she rose and went around the city, seeking the beloved; the city

I say that, which is above; Jerusalem,

which is our mother. O how often did the watchmen find her,

who guard the city, and to sacred vigils she attends, whom she asked,

Have you seen him whom my soul loves? She passed

them, and found whom her soul loves.

Him she had as companion, herself she prepared as companion to him,

and adhering to Him was one spirit. What do I say was?

Is rather loving, then in hope, but now in reality; then

in desire of soul, now in satiety, not which fastidiousness

generates, but which the love of loving perpetuates. Isa. 26, 9;

She said however with Isaiah to the Lord, nay

to the spouse; My soul desired you in the night, but also

my spirit in my bowels: from morning I shall watch

unto you. So she slept, that she might say; I sleep, and

my heart watches. So she with her Spouse watched,

that sleeping on straw she dreamed of the palace of heaven;

but also believed the dream, and considered straw

every thing, which this world might admire; whence also

with weepings she washed her bed, and with tears her bedding

she watered. The common Vigils she was wont to anticipate,

that those princes, Angels I say, who are wont to be joined

to those psalming, if she did not anticipate, herself however

was found first in the midst of the timbrel-playing maidens. Psalm. 67

[14] These works of light came into light, could not be covered,

just as not a city placed upon a mountain.

They had lovers, all upright in heart; fleeing honor, and praisers

all, passing by the way; so that the fame

of her virtue flew over the land, and reached

the Court. Wonderful seemed of the person, because noble,

because beautiful, because young; and thence fame more grateful,

the more the younger, the more acceptable a woman: for

nobility of flesh is wont to most to generate ignobility of mind,

and the more freely they sin, the more slowly they think

themselves to be reproved or refuted. But this not in

public, but in corners, who would not vituperate, who

would not judge, who would not condemn? Where two or

three are gathered, in the midst of them is, with

two a third, with three a fourth: this is the part of nobles

acting ignobly. But otherwise Mathilda,

who when she fled the praises of men, did not escape them,

according to that of Hieronymus; she is more honored: Glory virtues as

a shadow follows, and deserting those seeking it,

it seeks those despising it. This sentence of the holy man

was proved in our Mathilda, who the more she scorned

to be honored, so much more she was honored; and the more lofty

with the Lord, the more humble in her own eyes,

and despised in her own judgment. The true she proved

the Lord's and Evangelical voice: Every

one who exalts himself, will be humbled; and he who humbles himself,

will be exalted. The exaltation by humbly experiencing

she learned in herself, the humiliation of him exalting himself in others

she saw, by seeing she perfected, and her hands she washed in the blood

of the sinner; she washed also the sinning one with weeping of compassion,

with tears of compunction, with sighs of pious sorrow.

[15] Of so great compunction indeed she was, that no one's

sorrow she would pass over, compassionate to all in necessities, no one's fall or misfortune

she would dissemble; but as soon as she had learned, she broke

into tears, fled to prayer, and what

was done, to God's clemency by weeping committed. Hence

to many help was given, with her praying, that sorrows would yield,

anguishes would be lessened, health would return, whether of body,

or of soul. Thence the name of sanctity to her was amplified,

so that they cultivated her, not as one still

in exile on earth, but as one already reigning in heavens. This

to her: but she suspecting from praise judgment, from favor

reckoning torment, turned over within herself that Prophetic:

My people, those who call you blessed, themselves

deceive you, and the path of your steps disturb. Isa. 5, 11, Ps. 54, 8, Ps. 118, 36, Lam. 3, 48

Behold she went far away fleeing, and remained in solitude,

persisting in weepings, and outflows of waters of David,

and divisions of waters of Jeremiah her eyes

led down. If she saw the afflicted Church, outflows

of waters she poured into tears, with all miseries by pitying

compassionating; if affliction touched individuals,

divisions of waters she made by weeping through individuals;

if anyone had sinned, she wept for him; if Brother

or Sister was tempted, she did not cease to weep, until the sting ceased,

and the soul be drawn from the snare. She fed herself with the bread

of tears, and drink she received in tears in measure;

unguent making for herself from the anguishes of the poor,

from the destitution of the needy, from the bereavement of widows,

from the sighs of the oppressed, from the miseries of orphans

and pupils, from the exiles or chains of captives,

from the dangers of pilgrims or seafarers

or shipwrecks; finally, from all in every

tribulation constituted. With this, I say, unguent

she came with those Evangelical women to anoint Jesus; she is busy to help all.

but Him not found, because He had risen already in

glory, she did not lose the unguent; but expended

on His body, which is the Church. Mar. 16, 1 She anointed all, as

said, the afflicted with the unction of mercy, with the fat

of compassion, with the oil of benignity, with the unguent of clemency.

For this she shed tears, that with them she might help, and

herself be praised not by man, but by Him who looks at

the heart. For His ear received the veins of her whisper,

and as a voice of a gentle breeze He heard the whispers of the Spouse,

speaking to her in the Canticles; Better are your breasts than

wine, fragrant with the best ointments. And other unguents

of this kind she was wont to prepare, one which the Lord

Mary Magdalene over the feet would pour by weeping

for sins, another which over the head

by giving thanks for benefits: but better than the prior

is this one, nor that one despised, because the sacrifice is of the contrite

spirit; this however pleases and propitiates more,

since it is the sacrifice of praise. Cant. 1, 3 Third which is

best, compassion for the neighbor, benefit for the needy,

outweighing both, from neither

discrepant, our Mathilda as much in deed as in affection

preferred; knowing those to do, and these not to omit.

Whence pleasing to God made, beloved by the beloved, heard

was she for her reverence, who nothing harsh to anyone showed,

though she was grave indeed and mature, but with all

sweetness and pleasantness mixed.

[16] To say what compels me history, what indeed by

myself I would not say, except a witness of what is said and instigator of saying, never seen to laugh

a noble matron as much in birth as in truth,

I had had. But why do I doubt? What is impossible

to God? She was never seen to laugh, nor heard

to say a useless word. Yet the end of life with laughter

was for her, what in the following I shall say, when I shall come to it.

Otherwise of an unprofitable word she rebuked herself;

her conscience rebuked her beyond measure: which thus

happened. One of the Sisters stood before her, carrying

something in her hands. What she carried fell to the ground,

and the Abbess subjoined a word commonly used:

Tread upon it. As she said this, she broke into tears,

weeping and wailing, as if she had broken the Roman churches.

For many days over this she afflicted herself with fasts and vigils,

adding days of penitence. What to these things shall we

say, speaking against the interdict? lacerating

with colloquy the neighbor? shooting in secret the immaculate? for a jocose word she weeps bitterly.

sharpening our tongues as a sword?

She had heard in the Gospel, Every word

idle, which men shall have spoken, they shall render of it

an account on the day of judgment. Mat. 12, 36 She had heard, and anticipated the day

of judgment, more quickly and happily herself judge of herself. She had heard from

the Wise One, Better is anger than laughter; for through the sadness of countenance,

the mind of the offending one is corrected. Eccl. 7, 4 She was angry with herself,

but with others she was never seen to be angry. But how,

you will say, did she emend excesses? Was no one there sinning,

but were all as Angels of God in heaven?

Sinners not to accuse is sin, and the greatest;

with the Lord saying to Heli, that he knew his sons acted

unworthily, and did not accuse them, therefore, He said;

I have sworn Heli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated

by victims and gifts unto eternity. Mathilda avoided

this correcting, but in mercy rebuking,

and with modesty; that she who had sinned, would not

reckon anger, when she was punished, but justice; otherwise

to resist her no one would dare, no one would attempt. So great

was the gravity of the judging woman, that the light of her face would not

fall upon the earth, but as one thundering from heaven

would she hear the sentence, if indeed with Ecclesiastes laughter

she reckoned an error, and to joy said; Why are you in vain

deceived? Who with Job while she sat surrounded

by the army of Sisters, was however the consoler of the mourning,

in judging just, in consoling benign, in

deed severe, and with the Apostle all things to all. In

many things she was according to Solomon as if unknowing, nothing

however neglecting, because timorous; knowing how to change anything,

but herself not changed; and with Anna her countenance

were not further changed into diverse. You have, O

reader, in this woman many tokens of virtue, which if

you reweave, you find from infancy examples of sanctity, and

from the first hour of the day laboring in the vineyard, not pleading

over the price, but for herself no other price chosen,

than the Lord's grace. You have sanctity, proved

by deeds, sanctified by merits, sought by labors;

but not yet manifested by signs of virtues. Nor

these to the living were lacking, much more to the deceased they are not

lacking.

[17] A cause arose that, summoned, she went to the Palace:

the utility of the monastery so demanded, and great damage

if she had not gone. Through others she wished business to be done, Frederick

demanding that she come, and the matter be ended through her.

Let her come, he said, my cousin to Regensburg: a solemn

matter is, nor otherwise, than solemnly to be done before

the Princes and Court. summoned to the Emperor Frederick She went, although unwilling, having a retinue

congruent with her name, and greater than she would wish; to whom

solitude was more amiable, than the palace. You would see

another Judith, after so many fasts, not pallor

of countenance to show, but to all eyes appear gracious:

and, except proven virtue corrected the unwise,

the unwise would not be lacking, who would think she had been free for delights

rather, than labored in fasts. It was proved

there, what she had done at home, that she truly had fasts

for delights; and hence her countenance, on account of the spiritual feast,

more like roses, than ashes; rejecting

with Daniel and his companions, royal foods, and content with the eating

of legumes. Such she stood by the Emperor seeing

beauty, and not ignorant of virtue, and deferring

to the Holy one more for sanctity, than for race

and blood. He rejoiced as much as possible, such

a sharer of his race to have; he wondered at the most holy

from the not holy, she pleads the cause of the monastery: and as a rose to have proceeded from thorns.

This he predicated of her, and seeing her rejoiced over her: but also

more gladly hearing her, the causes, for which she had come, he made

and finished all for her. They came to the table:

supper for the family; dinner for the Abbess in the evening was prepared:

flesh for the rest; for the Abbess was set the food of Daniel.

She with the rest indifferently with sight and smell

perceived all things; but separated from all in taste, she had

in taste only legumes. Her butler was a Soldier,

mature himself, knowing what to God, what to the world he owed;

nor passing over, what he knew to be the Lady's will.

Forewarned, the spring secretly drawn, solemnly

with companions advancing, he brought to the Abbess:

for to all others to all abundance wine was poured.

But she tasting, herself deceived, or despised

beyond the usual, wondered: for the spring, not spring,

but best wine tasted. From which forthwith abstaining,

she modestly indicated to the butler, accused his disobedience,

at supper about to drink water, she finds it changed into wine: to take away the wine, and bring the spring,

stealthily she made him do. He sent his servant boy, drew

the spring, brought it to the house. He pours again, drinks

the Abbess wine from the spring; rebukes the butler for

obstinacy. He swears, that the servant drawing water

he had seen, nor besides what he had drawn had he offered.

Then she, Drink, said, and accuse yourself.

The other steward drinks; he became a praiser of this wine.

Nothing, he says, equal to this Bavaria has born, nothing

Austria has produced, nothing France or Alsace has sent, nothing

Cyprus or Greece comparable to this has given.

The praiser the Abbess restrained, the spring ^d a third

time she demands. He runs, drew himself, and brings.

He asserts that he had drawn, the taste he was unwilling to be other than wine:

which the Abbess wished to be hidden, but the magnitude of the matter

unable to lie hidden came into the public. You see

how beloved she had the Lord, that with all

her own abounding in wine, alone she would not drink water:

but from the cluster of Cyprus, which He Himself was, wine ministered

to her; that the beloved of the beloved at such a banquet might rejoice; and

before the Princes, whom she could not lie hidden, glorified

by miracle. But she, impatient of honor, suppressed

and wished suppressed the word; but by the Lord's example,

the more it is covered, is uncovered. She fled

therefore from the Court, not wishing to be burdened with rumor; but the odor

she left behind worthy of God, as if making contempt

of delights, love of fasting, honor to God, contempt

of the world. This beginning of signs had

with the Lord Jesus the Lady Mathilda, in both, as

I believe, dwelling and admonishing Mary, They have no wine:

and the same here made wine from water, for one

whom He loved, who for many there, whom loving and

believing He made. John 2. She nothing for herself over this of praise or

of honor secretly or publicly claiming, her hands

shook off, saying herself immune from this deed; the Lord

to be the doer of all things, nothing on her account or by her, but

on account of others, if anything new happens, done. So she sent back

virtue to the Lord of virtues, just as to the sea

springs and rivers run back, where is the origin of all:

if indeed all rivers enter the sea, and the sea

does not overflow: and Mathilda, to the place whence it had gone out,

made the miracle return, that it might flow again; flow, I say,

and not fail again. Eccl. 1.

[18] The Lord added still to do with her, and

were made glad those dwelling under her. The daughter of a certain

carnal man was, having a demon, to whom her father

had obtained a place in the monastery as a prebendary, not

not price done. The race of this demon was the worst,

and similar to that of the Gospel, which would go out only

in prayer and fasting. Mat. 17 Whence neither could the Disciples cast it,

nor could the Sisters cast it, She heals a demoniac, although they had often prayed

for her, but yet still the demon was

with her. There was in her to see misery, naked to run about,

to fill all things with shouts, with the spirit driving her

to tear herself, to seek a place to throw herself headlong;

either into fire or water, horrible things to see and hear to commit

the demon, that he might destroy her. Heavy to all,

of all she had overcome the heaviness, that not to say to serve the sick one,

but neither to see or hear her was now easy.

Mathilda felt that here something must be worked: and with the spirit revealing

to her, animated by hope and confidence, she approaches

the demon; with prayer sent before, she orders him to go out: to him refusing

as if scourged, no longer to be there, she commands.

The demon roars, gnashes his teeth, and much

tearing her, with the Lord Jesus helping His bride,

he went out; showing by the very tearing, what kind and

how great he had been in malice. The girl was healed, herself the witness

of the Abbess's virtue, and serving while she lived

God in a life of sanctity and justice. The Abbess wished also

this to be hidden, but the miracle cried out: she herself

saying this, that the same is Jesus the Lord in the heavens,

who had been on earth to work; and the same invisibly

does, what visibly he showed. Hence it happened that

she was frequented by many, and frequented made many

signs; which thus she overshadowed, that to the blessings

of words she ascribed them, and to herself of the virtue's virtue

she arrogated nothing. But the merit of the worker did not lie hidden in

the work, and from her fruits they did not know her,

reporting from her health and help in tribulation,

rendering to God for her honor with thanksgiving.

She who had been healed (which I had nearly omitted)

was also dumb: and the dumb: but with the Lord curing and Mathilda

praying, she lost the demon and received speech;

trampling henceforth Satan under her feet,

and with eloquent mouth pronouncing the praise of the Lord Saviour,

and imitating and magnifying the life of S. Mathilda.

The Sisters saw themselves not deceived, but having fruit

their own in sanctification, but the end eternal life,

of which now in spirit a great part they had pretasted

in the hundredfold, which to them God had given for the contempt

of the world, and the imitation of Jesus Christ. Rom. 6. With all therefore

their strength they panted toward the heights, she inflames the Sisters with desire of eternal life. desiring to be dissolved

and to be with Christ: for this was much better. And

they all ran in desire, fervored in study, strove

in affection. They all ran: but Mathilda

ran ahead more swiftly than the rest, but did not enter ahead of the rest;

many herself sending ahead to the Spouse's bridal chamber, by

whom she would have preferred to be found, than to anticipate them; anticipated

in the blessings of sweetness, that she yearned to depart from

the body, and to be present with Christ. The world she saw placed in

the wicked one; saw, I say, not only in speech,

but more in action; she saw all vanity

under the sun, and contended in mind above the sun. O,

she said, when shall I come and appear before the face of God

my own? When shall this mortal be absorbed by

life, and this corruptible put on incorruption? Who

will free me from the body of this death? And answer

she received from the spirit, an Apostolic answer glad and

pleasant: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

These voices of her heart were heard and granted

in heaven, entered into the holy places, and was sent

to her help from the holy place.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Return to Dietz: Exhortation to the Sisters. Tithe procured. Miracles.

[19] Knowing therefore herself shortly to die, doing something similar

to the Patriarch Joseph, who commanded his sons

about transferring his bones, Foreknowing her death, she remembered Dietz,

where she had been offered and espoused to Christ,

and there with her Sisters she chose her sepulchre. And calling

her Sisters, she indicates that the dissolution of her body

is imminent, that she must return to Dietz, saying she is very

sick; there either to die soon, or in a short time

recover. They consented, hoping for her life thereafter,

at the same time also seeing in her no signs of death.

She went, not doubting that she would die, or rather pass

from death to life; what is of life she commands

the Sisters to keep, especially what they had learned and seen

by her word and example. Clean, she said, am I

from the blood of you all: for I have not shrunk

from announcing to you all the counsel

of God. I go from you: whether I shall return, is uncertain;

certain however, that the Lord renders to each according to

his labor. And kissing all, and to God

commending, she returns to Dietz: she went away to Dietz. Sadly was she received,

because sick; but with all care and humanity

cared for, not as a guest, but as the dearest mother, and

as Lady of the place. Pain grew, but day and night nothing

else in heart turned and in mouth the bride of God, except the praise

of God. So a young heifer, that I may interpret in good part,

taught to love threshing, knowing nothing else to do

in the time of infirmity, showed her commiseration.

In vigils, in fasts she kept her custom, except

so much, as could be persuaded, that she might restore herself a little.

She calls the Sisters, and to her flesh making force, with the spirit's

virtue she greets all with sweet address; then she addresses

with this exordium of speech: With desire I have desired

this Pasch to eat with you; truly Pasch to me,

because glad, because pleasant, because always desired;

Pasch I say, that is, passing. Behold I, dearest,

enter the way of all flesh: now to my Fathers I am gathered,

and with Adam ash into ash I return.

This is unavoidable, this all flee, and no one can escape.

Of nothing am I conscious to myself: but, who judges

me, is the Lord; the same merciful and compassionate

and just: who if He shall have decreed to save me, immediately I shall be freed;

if He looks at labor, nothing have I shrunk, that

I have not striven to please Him. In all things I have labored, not

I however, but the grace of God with me. With His help

the good fight I have fought, the course I have consummated, the faith

I have kept; nor do I doubt that there remains for me a crown

of justice, which the Lord will render to me, who is crown,

who is end, and reward of the fight. Consider, Ladies,

momentary and light this our tribulation,

which beyond measure on high eternal of glory

weight works in us, while we contemplate

not those things which are seen, but which are not seen; for

what is seen is temporal, but what is not seen

is eternal. And temporal indeed flattering things I have despised,

adverse things I have not feared, and the end of both now

I have in the rendering of pleasantness, in the fulness of glory,

in the eternity of joy. I could have walked that broad

and spacious way, leading to death, Speaking to the Sisters she shows great confidence of mind, with mortals;

now would be the end of pleasures, but

beginning of torments, from which I would not escape, but

would fall from punishment to punishment through ages of ages.

Now my soul is freed from the snare of the hunters,

of the malign spirits I say against us, and drawing

to sin; but the snare is broken, and, thanks be to God,

I am freed. Behold the prince of this world comes,

and in me has nothing; because to the world myself

I have never offered as companion, intimate, or friend.

Abraham's bosom receives me, the bridal chamber of Christ awaits me;

and Mary mother of my Lord, with the holy

Virgins, hastens to meet me: of the Patriarchs

and Prophets the choir, of the Apostles the senate,

of the Martyrs the glorious army, but also of all the Elect

the innumerable army at my coming rejoices

and dances; heaven is glad, Paradise exults;

and Christ the Lord Himself to His feasts and to His banquet

invites me. Behold I come, I give thanks. With

these I shall be, who are redeemed by the Lord, who shall come into

Sion praising, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads

them, joy and gladness shall they obtain, sorrow and groaning shall flee. O happy me!

who have escaped the judgment

of God, eternal punishment, the penalty of gehenna,

inextinguishable fire, immortal worm, chains

of hands and feet, torments prepared for sinners,

and hammers ceaselessly striking the bodies of the impious.

I have escaped by God's grace the mouth of the lion, the hand

of the dog, the dire faces of torturers, death itself, satan

and the devil. Far from me shall be that Behemoth Leviathan,

the ancient serpent, the twisted dragon, the asp and

basilisk, the boar from the wood, and the singular wild beast; the same

called by many and diverse names, by which is signified the great

and thousand-art crafty malice of him. Him

to have conquered for me in Christ, of how great grace, of how immense

glory it is, from the magnitude of the enemy weigh.

And behold paradise has been opened to me, the gate of heaven lies open,

and that heavenly Jerusalem, which has been founded on sapphires,

whose battlements are jasper, with gems are built

its towers, and every precious stone is the structure of its walls.

The streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with pure gold,

and through all its streets Alleluia is sung, and

the choir of Virgins there singing a new canticle,

the Lamb wheresoever He shall go follows. To these I am joined,

one of the rejoicing and singing in the fulness

of joy, in the satiety of the banquet, of which crumbs and small pieces

with the dogs under the table of the lords I was wont

to gather and eat: if indeed the fulness of joys is

in the heavens, and thence those sentences of the Scriptures, by which

we are consoled on earth: thence that voice, voice full of joy:

Behold I create new heavens, and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be in memory, neither shall they ascend

upon the heart, and you shall rejoice and exult in those things which I

create: for I create Jerusalem in exultation, and

her people into joy, and I shall exult in Jerusalem,

and shall rejoice in my people, and there shall not be in it any more

the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. Isa. 65, 17 Come, dearest, hasten

to enter into that city: and O blessed me, if

there shall be the remnants of my seed in it! you I say, seed,

not of the flesh, but of my heart, because through the Gospel I

have begotten you.

[20] To go thither, is to love: for except through charity

it is not entered, she inculcates mutual charity: nor any joy other than charity

is in it. This to me to say is not tedious, but to you

necessary; because it is necessary in this part for you to amend,

that greater work you give to keeping charity.

You strike, and weary one another with injuries, you hold angers long,

over nothing you contend, and from a straw a beam, from

anger hatred you make for yourselves. Do I praise you? in this I praise not.

I praise you, that you are alacrious to the divine Office,

that prompt to fasting, that swift

to vigils, that ready to obedience, chaste to

continence, vigilant to all good; I do not praise,

that you have contentions among you and zeal. What

is it to praise God, and to vituperate the neighbor? James 3, 11. A spring

from the same hole does not flow forth sweet and bitter

water, as James says, nor does God receive His praise

with the vituperation of the neighbor. What avails the fast of food,

which God created to be received with thanksgiving

by the faithful; and to eat the flesh of Sister or

Brother by calumnies or detractions? What do vigils

profit, in which by mouth is sung to God, and in heart is thought

evil to the Sister, or retaliation of evil? What useful does

the obedience of man have with the contempt of the Creator?

What does it confer to contain the flesh from luxury, and not

contain the heart from envy, the tongue from contumely?

And of these indeed, which are good, I praise

you: but I do not praise, that envies and contentions

among you are. Virgins you are; do not greatly

glory: there had been also those, who were reproved,

who the oil of charity in their vessels did not have,

to whom knocking it was said, I do not know you. But far be it,

that this be said to you. Turn from yourselves, dearest,

namely that sentence of Hieronymus, The worst

poison of envy is compared to viperish seed,

namely it kills its mother. This is the only thing, that

I fear for you; this last I admonish you to amend, and I hope

most certainly that you shall be saved; nor outside with the foolish virgins

remain, but with the prudent inside to the Spouse

enter. With thanksgiving the admonition was received,

amendment promised; and in all things, which they had

against each other, immediately exhibited.

She calls all to herself, one by one she kisses, and to God

commending, rests a little.

[21] Pain grew daily. Nothing else in heart she turned

and in mouth the bride of God, she asks from her parents, by name of dowry, except the praise of God. And that God's

servants and handmaids, Brothers and Sisters of His in Dietz

serving God, as living so also dead, as

by word so also by example, so also by some stipend she might refresh;

turning herself to the parents of B. Mathilda, her father

Berthold ^a, and her mother Sophia,

before all with gentle voice she thus addresses: O father,

be mindful, that me as a young girl you destined to

this Church, in which, with the holy Spirit governing me

by grace: I have so profited, that, although unworthy,

yet the name of mistress I could not flee. Then

in Oetilinsteten, as you yourself know, by the name of Abbess

till now I have flourished. It is established therefore to your paternity,

that in secular habit a life honorable I could have led

with you, if to God this contemplative life of mine

more than the active had not pleased. It is plain truly to all

intelligent, that in Oetilinstetten more delicately

than in the world I would have lived, if I had wished; for very many

companions in liberty I would have had there. Now therefore

since in Dietz I was as a young girl and mistress, worthy

I esteem, that I your handmaid and daughter with you here

may merit to be buried. Now, my father, if you had espoused me

to a mortal man, would you not to him a part of your substance by name

of dowry have given with me, and the same thereafter not

only as son-in-law, indeed as heir of all your

substance would have conducted himself? But because the King of Kings

and Lord of Lords Jesus Christ has elected me your daughter

to Himself as bride, you have never to so

sweet a Spouse of mine, your Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour,

for me, and for your soul, the tithes of certain to the monastery of Dietz, any espousal gifts

deliberated to give. Acknowledge therefore, pious father,

that the church of Dietz, by you and my family founded,

in which the material bridal chamber for me has been preordained by God,

is situated in a wooded, watery, and unfruitful place.

Give therefore, dearest father, to my immortal Spouse,

not from your own, but from His, which He chose for Himself in the first

constitution of the whole world; give, I say,

I beg, to me, and to my Spouse so justly and congruously asking,

by name of espousal gifts, the tithe of your substance,

which you are known to have around the Isar, in the confines

of Diengen. The father however of the same bride of Christ

his most beloved daughter's request having understood, with the counsel

of his parents communicated, joyfully and affectionately

fulfilling for her the petition, said: O daughter,

to me above all your kindred dearest, the tithe

of all my substance around the Isar in the confines of Diengen,

for love of you, to this church of holy Mary

in Dietz I confer, and under the testimony of all standing around,

upon this altar of holy Mary Mother

and Virgin of Jesus Christ I delegate. To which the bride

of Christ B. Mathilda said with congratulating voice: O

my father, now I rejoice with you, because to my in all things

you have satisfied the petition. Turning therefore B. Mathilda

to the Provost Hartwic, and to the convent

of Brothers and Sisters, with knees bent on the ground

and hands raised, with tears she begged God,

saying: Lord Jesus Christ, receive the gift now bestowed

upon you, and preserve to your servants and handmaids,

devotedly serving you here, for future use.

After these things her father subjoined, saying: and obtains them, with the Angels supplying Amen:

O sweet and to God beloved daughter, with me, I beg, pray to

God, if anyone, which God forbid, of my posterity

should attempt to impede the gift now given by me,

that the same here with worthy punishment be punished, and

not in the last judgment with Cain perpetually be tormented.

This prayer finished, was heard a voice in the air

of holy spirits replying, and with most sweet

voice crying, Amen.

[22] When B. Mathilda knew the time and hour

of bringing the tithe from the confines of Diengen,

which by her name to the church of S. Mary the Virgin in

Dietz had been conferred, to the Provost Hartwic, from the same flesh and wine through obedience she takes,

before all the Brothers and Sisters, this discourse she used,

saying: O Father and Lord in Christ,

now I rejoice, that the dowry as testimony of my espousal

I see being brought: for as the present

life's refreshment I feel, so also eternally in the future

in the heavenly fatherland to be refreshed I confidently hope. After

these things when, the Brothers and Sisters in the customary way, with the cymbal

sounding, were called to the refectory; the Provost

Hartwic, leaving the order of Brothers, hastened to the refectory of the Sisters,

and addressing B. Mathilda with these words, said: O daughter

in Christ, beloved by God and men, because the foods are now prepared, which

by your most sweet intercession to us and our successors for refreshment

of bodies have been conferred. John 1. It becomes therefore

your most pious devotion today in charity

with flesh to be fed and with wine drunk. By the authority of Him, who

visibly before you set water into wine

changed, I admonish, ask, and in the virtue of holy obedience

I command you, that of all the food, with which today

and henceforth we and our succession are refreshed, with the same,

at the present hour, gladly you be refreshed. To the words of this

precept B. Mathilda groaned, and tacitly

smiling, said: O! Father and Lord, laughter with sorrow

is mixed, and the extremes of joy mourning occupies. Prov. 14. Now

therefore, what I shall do, I know not; except this only I know, that

never disobedient I wish to be found. At this

voice all the Sisters, prostrated at her feet, immense thanks

to her gave, not so much for the stipend's

conferral, by which they enjoyed; as much as for her solemn

refection, with which all congratulated. Furthermore

the Mistress of the order, with heaven approving. giving the sign, that the Sisters from the table

might rise, and with the Psalm, in the customary way, the church

might seek; B. Mathilda trembling with the Sisters singing together,

heard a voice in the air saying: O B.

Mathilda, know that you today not with reproved Esau,

but with Elias raised into the air have been fed. To this voice

giving ear, tacitly to God she gave thanks.

Which not hearing, but understanding the Sisters;

asked, what it was, that she noted within herself,

and with the others did not psalm. Isa. 24, 16 To this B. Mathilda

with the Prophet replied: My secret to me,

my secret to me. Over such her response

all wondering Sisters, what they could do,

were thinking. And when mutually among themselves, as has been said,

they discussed, the Mistress of the convent of pious Sisters,

said: If it is to your liking, lest long thus

among ourselves we discuss, let us call the Lord Provost.

Hearing this all said: O Lady

Mistress, it pleases us, that the Lord Provost

you call, that through his help, what was Blessed Mathilda's

secret we may know. which she being commanded to reveal, At these words

was called the Provost Hartwic, who coming began to inquire,

why he had been called. To whom the Mistress

for all, as became, the Sisters answered, saying:

O Father and Lord in Christ to be venerated,

when today in customary manner from the table we rose, and

the church we sought, our Lady and Sister B.

Mathilda had certain, as we understood,

with holy spirits colloquies; and while piously

we inquired of her, what it was, that she had spoken,

she replied: My secret to me, my secret

to me. Over such her response, Father and

Lord in Christ, you should know to have been called.

Hearing this, the Provost Hartwic ordered B. Mathilda

to be called to him. Who when she had been called, the Provost

Hartwic said to her: O daughter, beloved by God and

men, if me you reverence, as Lord, and as

Father you venerate, I say to you with the Prophet Malachi:

If I am to you Father, where is my love? if Lord,

where is my fear? Malach. 1 Under the cover therefore of paternal

love, and the fear of mastership, tell me, why to your beloved

Consisters you said, when from you, what you were doing, they asked,

and you replied, My secret to me, my secret

to me? To this Mathilda replied:

My soul has melted, since you, Father to be loved

and Lord to me always to be feared, so spoke. And

immediately at the feet of the Provost Hartwic to prostrate herself

disposing, the Provost Hartwic, with her hand received,

piously raising her, leading her aside a little,

learned from her what the Angelic spirits had said

to her; O B. Mathilda, know that you today not with reproved Esau,

but with Elias raised into the air have been fed.

Scarcely had such speech ended, with tears, said

the Provost Hartwic: O B. Mathilda, beloved by God

and men, may you now and in eternity

be blessed. And without delay he commanded, that both convents

of Brothers and Sisters with devotion should sing

to the praise of God, who today wonderful things declared

in B. Mathilda, this Psalm: Bless

all you works of the Lord the Lord. Dan. 3, Behold a wonder; when

now had been sung the last verse of this Psalm, the father

of the blessed Mathilda Count Berthold standing at the doors

of the church, thanks are given to God, anew began the same last verse

with tears saying; Blessed are you in the firmament

of heaven, and to be praised, and glorious, and above exalted

forever, who in my daughter such great virtues' wonders

do. Which said, by the Provost Hartwic,

and by B. Mathilda, and by all honorably he was received:

over which salutation thanking all,

he subjoined, saying: Hear I beg, and understand, and

how I have come here, with me consider. This

night around the cock-crow, while of my daughter I

and her mother were discoursing, a certain voice sounded

in my ears, saying: O Count Berthold,

rise, and to your daughter hasten. And with haste

rising, as you see, I have come. Now therefore, O

Provost Hartwic, what has been done, narrate to me.

To this the Provost Hartwic replied, saying:

I hear and understand, that God did not wish you

to be ignorant of the wonderful things, which lately in my Lady,

your daughter and God's bride B. Mathilda are, by which divinely admonished the father intervenes. as in

part you have known and more fully will know, performed:

and sitting down, he narrated to him each thing. Which heard

Count Berthold, replied, saying: God who

made me come here to so great a solemnity, to Him

let my devotion now and forever be offered, and let to Him

be perpetual praise now and forever. Scarcely Count

Berthold had finished his discourse, and B. Mathilda

inserting, said: I sleep, and my heart

watches. O how with sweetly-sounding voice, the bride of Christ, of her

heart's secrets brought forth: for as is the right of all

brides, the care of their own race of spouses; so

much more becoming is, the true bride of Christ, with watchful

heart to recall the love of her spouse Jesus Christ, which

He had in her, when on her account flesh He took on; when

on the cross hanging, sleep He took; and in the sleep of death

corporeal, through the opening of His side, from the fountain

of His heart blood and water He poured for us. Of that

love mindful B. Mathilda, said: [She herself asks that part of the Tithe be allotted to Hosts for neighboring Churches:] O in Christ

Father and Lord, venerable Provost Hartwic,

I a wretched woman pray, by your provident dispensation

it be given to me, that of the Tithe, by the present father

mine to this Church Dietz in my name

conferred, a part of such quantity for Hosts ^b be instituted,

so that also to all adjoining Churches largely

and perpetually they be distributed. Joy indeed for me

it generates and salvation for all, with the rest of the same Tithe

parts being enjoyed, if from it be made that bread

mystic, which from heaven descending into the womb of the Virgin,

and on the cross hanging, with Hosea the Prophet testifying,

was baked in the oven, that to us might be edible. Hosea 7, 7 That

therefore we with the same bread alike be refreshed in the kingdom

of heavens, that which I have asked your, pious Father Hartwic

Provost, may grace afford me, and be confirmed

by the consent of all the Confraters and Lords

my Canons of this church. Completed

this petition, all with one voice said: O B. Mathilda,

what now you have asked, this all we counsel, and

ask be done. To this the pious charitable Provost

Hartwic, with hand to the Brothers imposing silence,

said: O B. Mathilda, beloved by God and men,

a grateful word you have brought forth; for the hearts of all our

you have excited to fulfill your desire.

That therefore your desire's affection to its hoped

effect I may bring, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit I establish, and to all Officials I command, and obtains it.

that in individual years in such super-abundant

quantity the marrow of grain from the Tithe in Diengen

and from the confines there, especially for Hosts,

as B. Mathilda asked, perennially be distributed; and

just as that salutary Eucharist, in the same form of bread

figured, to no one of penitent and at the same time asking affection

is to be denied, so also the very substance of bread

never to anyone be denied. It is established certainly to all

cultivators of the most Christian faith through this most salutary

constitution, the dowry of the espousal

of B. Mathilda, in the church of Dietz, with God and

men to be most celebratedly confirmed.

[23] When one Sister, who had the use of writing

membrane, while at the lines ^c she was punctuating,

drawing the awl carelessly, transfixes her eye, perforates the pupil,

and immediately came forth blood and water. Pain elicits

a cry, all run together to the Sister: doubled

is the trouble from the desperate languor of the Mother, and from

the blinding of the Sister; She restores an eye struck out by an awl for she was useful, and beloved

by all; and hence more is grieved her grief. Excites

the Mother that tumult, she is called and led: when

with water the pupil had flowed away, and still the blood ran in streams

flowed. No hope of recovering the eye, no further

of seeing; only that the pain might cease, is wished

for the suffering one. She is bidden to approach, the eye she handles with hand

the Mother: and the hand of the Lord was present, putting to flight pain,

giving health, and clarity of light. Stopped the blood,

and health remained, so that never more clearly

did she see, nor more sweetly have. This did

in death our Mathilda, attesting that she was not dying, but from

death passing to life, and counseling the living

to a better life.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The last deeds of the dying woman. Death, burial, miracles.

[24] Meanwhile is heard outside, that the Abbess sick is forming

now toward death. The Provost Hartwic runs

lifeless, Provost Hartwic asks, the Brothers rush in with the greatest weeping

and lamentations, there is over her bellowing and groaning,

proper to each, and lamentation in common

solemn. They knew that through her the Lord had given salvation

to the house, and the consequents to the antecedents

rarely similar. Then the Provost Hartwic began

to speak, the Abbess consoling, and the Convent exhorting:

You indeed, O Mother, I see in defect

of body the greatest, yet not still of your life

do I despair: powerful is the Lord to give you back to us in salvation

of the house, which wholly hangs on you, whom we lament,

whom we mourn. We know that you Christ desire,

whom you love; safe are for you the rewards of merits,

nor delayed shall they be diminished. Of us rather have mercy,

whom you desert. Behold whom in two places to Christ

you have gained by the example of your sanctity: behold the Brothers

and Sisters, that she may ask for life to be prolonged for her, whom through you Christ has acquired, all

belonging to your crown, and like gems

shining in your beauty. Behold all neighbors, smelling

from you the odor of sweetness in your works, which

they have learned in the words, which of you they have heard; but also

in the discipline of your morals, which they have seen; in

all these things glory to Christ you have acquired, nor is there

anything He would deny to you praying. We pray therefore, that you ask life

to be added to you, necessary for us more than for you.

Who further, you withdrawn, will protect us with prayers,

cherish us with persuasions, fortify us with counsels, relieve us with helps?

The Princes are your race, all by your grace

have held this place grateful, have expended benefit,

have averted every contrary, have inclined

to your name. While you live our people had peace;

all yours have been honored from you; nothing dared

the malign; even those, who hate peace, with yours have been

peaceful. We desire your life; but if to Christ more

it pleases, that you migrate, go secure, certain of the crown,

glorious in victory. And you, he said, O Sisters, behold

the way, which we run to the end: hither we tend, that

we may end this life by death. And would that with this death

we be ended, we who badly live; and

not another death follow immortal, by which the sinful

soul forever dies, and never finally dies.

For it lives ever fresh to torment,

nor is brought to an end; is consumed, and is not consummated;

having forever, what to grieve despairing,

and despaired what to escape. Come now, Sisters,

happy I would call those, whom the Lord has assumed to Himself,

whom not handmaids, but brides He wishes called; for

He does not wish to be feared by us, but loved; or if He is feared,

He delights in fear filial, indeed bridal, not servile.

You see before you your Leader running, and to imitate her she exhorts the Sisters. and

now consummating the course, and knocking at the door

of heaven; and behold now it shall be opened to her. Happy she,

whom the Lord has led through right ways, and shows

her the kingdom of God, and gave her the knowledge of the Saints;

honored her in labors, and completed

her labors; leading her with help, showing the kingdom

with counsel, giving her knowledge with wisdom, honoring

in labors with constancy, completing labors with perseverance:

and you, daughters, with the same virtue arm yourselves,

the footsteps of your Mother follow, that with her running

you may attain the prize, and by her merits attain

the kingdoms of the heavens, with her Spouse and yours

preparing, who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

[25] The exit of the Holy one the holy Angels observed, and

the demons and the Sisters. Then suddenly she began to weep most bitterly; she having three times wept and as many times laughed,

after the weeping, what before she had never been seen to do,

she laughed with great gladness: and so a third time

the weeping she repeated, and the laughter, not lacking mind, as often

happens, but most well possessing sense. To no one however did she indicate,

why this was done. Over this each one has

license to conjecture. To me, not as wise,

it seems, the cause of her weeping was the demons,

whom the Holy one saw, her evils numbering and weighing;

but the holy Angels good works on the contrary

by numbering surpassing; and from this rightly laughing

she exulted, as she had wept, when the malign would be victors

she had feared. Three times indeed for this reason done; for in three

ways good or evil is committed; by thought,

by speaking, and by deed; which individually the enemy

demons weigh. First evil works in the balance

they place; which if they outweigh the goods, the soul

evilly working they claim for themselves; lesser if they be than the goods,

they flee conquered. Yet still about words they plead,

which also themselves they bring to the balance; and these

conquered, they exhibit a second flight. Lastly, nor

the last thought do they pass undiscussed, where

if they are conquered, beyond they have no right in the soul.

But just as evil spirits strive to snatch, so the good

attempt to rescue souls; that nothing of evils they suffer

to be brought into the middle, which has been by satisfaction

deleted: and so much exaggerate the good the goods,

as the evil the evils. I believe, to this Holy one of herself to have been seen

this given, but to say not to have been given;

that she more glad, the more secure, from body might exit; and

another less holy by her weeping anxious might render,

with laughter also confidence not deny.

[26] Which also that very perseverance of joy proved:

for so glad she lay afterwards, as if to feasts

invited, and with Angels at table. For she saw

S. Mary our Lady, saw and saluted. Hail, she is believed to have been gladdened by the appearing Mother of God,

she said, Mary, full of grace, the Lord

with you; and, at Blessed are you, she failed, and laughed, and

with great dancing exulted. The Sisters offered her

the image of S. Mary: with her hand she turned it away, turning

her eyes to the vision, which she saw in spirit;

as if she said, I salute S. Mary, not in image,

but in truth. And as the extremes of joy of fools

mourning occupies, so the expectation of the just

joy; and as the death of sinners is the worst, so precious

in the sight of the Lord is the death of Saints, in this

Holy one is proved. She proved of herself the saying: Until

the time the patient one shall sustain, and afterwards a rendering

of pleasantness. Eccles. 1, You would have seen her at Jesus's command grow silent,

nor a word from her mouth come forth; have gone around

the walls seven days, and then cried out, and by the cry

destroyed the walls, and to death insulted death,

nor did she feel the bitterness of death from the sweetness of life. Jos. 7. She laughed

then, before not laughing, and seeing fulfilled that

Bildad the Suite's sentence: God does not cast off

the simple, nor extend His hand to the malign, until

your mouth be filled with laughter, and your lips with jubilee. Job 1. She had escaped every anguish, she saw herself transferred to life;

perfect in merit, certain of the reward, by the call

of Christ, and the leading of Angels. This for her

was the cause of laughter, this the matter of jubilee; which could have been

done in secret, except God had prepared for her among men

in blessing the memory, as with Himself glory,

that He might also draw us to a similar form of living.

[27] Yet she had not entirely failed; she breathed,

and spoke in joy, Conrad her servant with all wondering;

individuals consoling exhorting, and consorting

their hands in God, and to each giving thanks

for the service performed. She saw Conrad by name,

faithful and devoted to her, who from a Soldier Converted

from the family of her parents, every work of the monastery

did; whom addressing, she filled with much consolation,

instructing with salutary words. 2 Tim, 4, You, she said,

to me a helper and faithful minister in the Lord, well

have served with me in the office of the house of God. Behold I have run

to the end, and today I receive the prize:

remaining for me is the crown of justice, and the rest of eternal

life. Trust that to you also there remains, nor long deferred,

because you have prepared for me the crown in great part.

If anything by prayer, meditation, or reading I have profited,

you have rendered me free; that the instancy of your labor,

was my rest; so now will be your reward with

my reward. Stand therefore now, and persevere as a soldier

good, certain as faithful athlete. Labor indeed

is, but brief and modest, to future glory, which

has neither measure, nor end; which I now see,

not only by faith, but certainly by sight.

I see our crowns to be rendered for our labor,

of so great pleasantness, she exhorts to perseverance: of so great glory, that no sense,

no tongue can declare to you. Persevere doing well,

add daily riches to yourself and glory

in heaven; just as he who treasures up, despises nothing

in profit. These things she spoke; and beginning again, from God's

praise she did not cease, as long as her tongue she could move.

[28] [Anointed at the last, she was seen as if to receive Communion from an invisible hand,] Healthy she more frequently communicated, the lamb

eating with wild lettuces; for never

without tears and most bitter weepings did she communicate,

and the cup of the Blood of Christ with weeping she tempered.

She had communicated in the bed of pain, receiving,

by the counsel of S. James the Apostle, also the Sacrament

of holy Unction, and in it the indulgence

of sins. James 5, 14, That from men among men

living: but now with Angels about to live, by hands

Angelic she communicated. To the end brought she had voice

no more, by gesture of the body the presence

of the Majesty she showed, inclining reverently, opening her mouth

competently, swallowing through the throat decently, but also the gesture

of one drinking imitating, and inclining frequently. This

seen the Sisters wondered, and those who were present; but a miracle

exhibiting, the soul soon she released, communicating

with the holy Communicators in joy, and going

with them to the reality of the sacrament from the sacrament, and from

the reality of faith to the countenance of vision. There was to see a miracle,

signs not of death in the dead one; splendor, but

of life. More like to the living with rosy face, with the roses of Martyrs

mixed she showed her spirit; but the lily's whiteness

imitating the rest of the body, to the Virgins as companion

testified the soul, as much in spirit as in flesh incorrupt.

Rejoice now and be glad Mathilda, daughter

of Sion, and not captive of Babylon; sing with David

a canticle to the Lord in your land, which fully you could not

in the foreign. Psal. 115, Say, You have broken my chains, to you I shall sacrifice

a host of praise; that you have escaped from the iron

furnace of Babylon, and dwell in light with the sons

of light.

[29] While the obsequies are celebrated, The obsequies are celebrated; weeping there was not

much; for the tears glory had absorbed: more

they rejoiced over the manifest virtue; weeping if any was,

was for himself by each one to her, not for her. The body

once attenuated by fasts, by the access of infirmity entirely

consumed, left nothing for worms to be devoured;

but over the bones the skin extended drew from her this

voice of Job; To my skin with flesh consumed has adhered

my bone, and there have been left only the lips around

my teeth. Job 19, 20 Was she not also dissimilar from him, who ran

against God with erect neck, and with fat back

was armed? Covered his face with thickness,

and from his loins fat hangs down. the candles extinguished by wind divinely are relit, Nothing of these in

Mathilda. Her spirit had ruled the limbs, easy to bear,

wherever it would wish, nor its will other,

than that from death to life she pass. And it was done

so. Nothing was lacking from the obsequies of spiritual glory: with Psalms,

Hymns, and spiritual canticles they were

celebrated: kindled were many lights, but by the wind vehement

and frequent extinguished. But God made

a miracle, that since for the blowing of winds men

could not stand, the candles incessantly burned;

and when now extinguished they seemed, they burned again invisibly

relit; and He who commanded the winds and the sea,

wished His bride of the light, which she always loved,

not even in death to be deprived. Matth. 8,

[30] Headache is cured: God wished to show, that she lived,

after death giving a sign in a Brother, who would have died,

except the dead one had helped. The name to him Conrad;

not he himself, whom recently we said,

but a free man, by spiritual love Converted, so sick

in head, that he had a response of death daily,

but especially after the weepings at the Abbess's death. What

would he do? By only one step he and death were divided. Mark 6,

He took with conceived faith audacity, approaches to

the dead one, thinking by the example of the Evangelical woman,

That if I touch the fringe of her vestment, well

I shall be. He himself touched the head of the Holy one, and to his head salvation

he acquired; which to death further never hurt,

and himself thereafter gave as witness and herald

of the Abbess's virtue.

[31] many confess they were healed by the living one, but bidden to be silent. There was present from the province a multitude of common people celebrating

the obsequies: there is offered for her the salutary oblation,

the individuals offer for the memory of themselves, commending

the Holy one to God, and themselves to the Holy one before

God. Neighbors were present weeping wailing, widows and orphans

their losses lamenting, as if Dorcas were lying

present, and would show to Peter, what tunics

she had made for him and garments. There were present also the sick healed by

her; confessing, those and those infirmities they had escaped

through her; but always they had hidden this, lest the Holy one be burdened:

since she had threatened, if they revealed it, that

into the same evils they would fall back. These threats received an end

at her death; up to then was the pact;

afterwards what they wished, it was permitted to say. Came forth

very many then, who would say; one, that he had been blind,

and saw; another, deaf, and heard; another, paralytic,

and recovered; and others and others, diverse and innumerable

infirmities through her had escaped. There came

also the sick to the obsequies: very many were healed, of whom

the number for this reason I do not write, because of the present

negligence did not annotate. Envy too if it had been present,

for the evident miracle could not have been hidden. She is invoked by the Writer of the life,

She was buried with honor, placed in Dietz, before

the altar of S. John the Baptist, with her spirit exulting

in the Lord, and her body in testimony there

placed, against those who do contrary to her life.

Come now, Holy one of God, recognize our figment,

recognize also yours; and that you nothing could,

besides divine help: and the same to us

obtain to do good: and if your we cannot

attain merit, to glory eminent,

at least punishment may we evade through you, joined to God,

in the Omnipotent nothing not powerful. You reign

with God, give that sin may not reign in

our mortal body: and He who conferred on you the fruit

hundredth with the Virgins, may confer on us

the sixtieth with the continent; nay even the thirtieth,

with the conjugal pleasing to Him. May the lily adorn

you, in the crown of glory and garland of exultation;

for us let it be at least the violet, witness of penitence and humiliation.

May you sit with the Spouse as Bride on the throne of the kingdom,

sleep in His bosom, sharer of rest and companion

of the bridal chamber; for us let it suffice to have escaped punishment, and in

the kingdom of the heavens at least last to be made. May you with the Virgins

and sing a new canticle; we however, through prophetic

lamentations, may decline that Woe of torments.

May you finally sit with Christ as judge of the living

and the dead; we with the right ones may stand by

in the number of the blessed, about to receive the kingdom

by your prayers, which we cannot by the justice of merits;

with Him providing, who lives and reigns through all

ages of ages. Amen.

[32] With the hairs of the dead one cut off diseases are cured, To the end I excessively hasten. There remains one thing

to say, which history forbids to keep silent. By the counsel of Paul

she had nourished her hair, who said: A woman if her hair

she nourishes, is glory to her. Which hearing and obeying,

lest she should seem to have passed over any of the commandments, she thought

to observe, acquiescing in the word of the doctor, not in the appearance

of the body. 1 Cor. 11 For she had her hair so veiled, that never

was it seen; and there was more labor, than ornament,

not to shear them; since to her wantonness they served not at all,

all to the burden of the body, all to the militia of the spirit, and

her eye was simple in all things. From the deceased they cut

them, keeping them as Relics: nor does the piety of faith

deceive, for by their touch often the sick are healed.

But the most certain remedy are they against tempests

and lightnings; and with winds rising and threatening,

the hairs of the Holy one they suspend in the air;

and so tempests subside, thunders are silenced,

as if the Lord Jesus commanded them, just as in

the sea once, so now on land. This so customary

in the monastery, so known in the province, that the showing

of the hairs of S. Mathilda, and tempests are calmed. is the dispelling of tempests;

nor after her death there are they harmful, when

before they often had harmed. Let us also pray to the Holy one, that

by her sanctity's merits she may defend us from the tempest of temptations,

protect us by her prayers from the fiery snares of the devil;

inflame us rather with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of ardor,

that we may have zeal of God through love, and

a mind tempered to the neighbor through discretion.

May S. Mathilda obtain for us the grace of the Holy

Spirit; expel anger, calm envy, extinguish

hatreds, suppress pride, heal conscience, slay

luxury, grant chastity, increase faith, accumulate

hope, add charity; that Him, who is charity,

we may see God, in that goodness of the elect living

and reigning forever and ever. Amen.

APPENDIX

A miracle wrought in the year MDCXVII, transmitted by Simon Provost of Dietz.

Mathilda, Abbess of the Order of Canons Regular of S. Augustine, at Dietz in Bavaria (B.)

Although there has always been and is among the faithful

great fervor toward our B. Mathilda

and devotion; A girl suffering from asthma and a hunched back is healed. yet the divine goodness with a recent

miracle has deigned either that fervor more in

us to kindle, or B. Mathilda further to illustrate.

Around the year XVII of this century that miracle

happened. A certain most noble Virgin, almost twelve years old,

with a double disease, namely asthma and a foul

hunched back labored, which all the industry of physicians

and art had long eluded. She was the daughter of the illustrious Counts

of Furstenberg, Wisenstaig and Helfenstein,

with whose evils her parents were wonderfully tortured, the defect of nature

interpreting, as is wont, as a reproach to their lineage.

Lord Rudolf the Count parent, then

at that time, by authority of the Most Serene Duke of Bavaria

Maximilian, administered the Prefecture of Landsberg,

which is a city of upper Bavaria, where a little

before he had migrated from his seat at Wisenstaig. There

it happened that the celebrated fame struck the ears of the Counts about

our B. Mathilda's sanctity, with God by merits

and miracles, especially what she had wrought in healing

defectives. Both the Dynasts are inflamed and raised

in hope, that a like grace the Blessed one to their daughter

would also confer. Hope further to confirm,

they vow at the sepulchre of B. Mathilda a Mass to be read;

and, if their daughter were healed, also other gifts. Therefore

the Countess, by cause as much of fulfilling the vow, as

of experiencing B. Mathilda's help, came with her daughter to

our monastery; takes care that the votive Mass be read.

Meanwhile both for some time at the tomb bent,

pour out to the blessed Abbess prayers, which a burning

desire of the desired help had suggested, indeed fervid.

They rise. The mother first her daughter's mantle

at the sepulchre (it above the ground, of brick work, and with marble above

placed, with the image of S. Mathilda incised reproducing

is elevated) presently her daughter herself she places;

to whom then the same, where the hump protruded, all around

closely she moves, and with the mantle again clothes.

The wonderful matter! The power of God, and B. Mathilda's merits

and the supplicants' faith looking upon, indeed as if to most clear

voices to heaven hearkening, frees the virgin

from both evils, with mother and daughter stunned and rejoicing;

and to God and God's most chaste Bride,

their Patroness B. Mathilda, from their hearts giving as great thanks

as they could. The illustrious Matron

both as a sign of grateful soul for so great a benefit,

and as testification of the wrought miracle,

to her holy preserver as a gift sent two skillfully

made heads, with enclosed Saints' relics venerable:

which thereafter to refer the benefit received from B. Mathilda

and to proclaim it, as long as she lived, never

ceased. Of this miracle witnesses, who partly in person

beheld, partly heard from those beholding, some

still survive: and among them two celebrated Prelates,

who can be named; and of whom one recently

even by his own writing made the matter testified, on XXVI

August of the year MDCXXXVII.

ON B. JACOBUS THE VENETIAN OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS PREACHERS

AT FORLI IN ROMAGNA OF ITALY PROVINCE.

YEAR MCCCXIV

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

On the cult often approved and increased by the Apostolic See, and the Life written by a contemporary, and its various translation and epitome.

Jacobus the Venetian, of the Order of Preachers, at Forli in Romagna (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] Blessed Jacobus, an illustrious

Confessor in Italy of the Dominican Order,

some by surname Venetian,

others Salomonius call:

Venetian from Venice, his native city;

but from his paternal noble there

family of the Salomonii, Salomonius.

The chronotaxis of his life, that it

even at the very threshold, Chronotaxis of B. Jacobus's life, which we prepare for the Acts, may

at the same time fall under the Reader's eye, is of this sort. He was born at Venice

in the year from the Nativity of Christ MCCXXXI, and there in the year

seventeenth after, that is MCCXLVIII into the Religious S.

Dominic family received, he passed eighteen years. After

these, in the year namely MCCLXIX, to avoid the troublesome custom of his relatives,

with seat changed, into the Forlivian Convent

he migrated: where the rest of his age's years (if

you except six, in which by interval he held the Prefecture among his own at Ravenna,

Faenza, and San Severino, but vicariously),

altogether sixty-six years in Regular discipline

he consumed, and died in his eighty-third year, of Christ

MCCCXIV. Buried, and before and after death by wrought miracles

bright, of best marble a worked mausoleum

at Forli, with this inscription the Venetians erected:

This tomb preserves Brother Jacobus in marble,

Whom the heap of virtues gives to you Livia as Father. epitaph.

Glory who to the Venetians, descendants is born:

By virginal merits the world has merited heavenly things.

Of him Dominic, Peter, Thomas of the kindly Order

Rejoice, that with their companion psalms are sung in the heavens.

Cancers, gouts, fevers, and headaches

He drove away, and other diseases and frenzies of mind.

Forlì rejoice for you now under so great a Patron,

Who the Father and Son begs with the Holy Spirit.

[2] His public cult, not many years after his death, with tacit

assent first approved John XXII; and with continued

through two intervening centuries illustrious miracles, and these to the examination

offered to Clement VII, Cult granted to the Forlivians for 31 May, there was obtained from him in the year

MDXXVI a living-voice Oracle, by which he gave the power,

within the Forlivian walls a yearly feast to him to be held. The Oracle

of which the witness was the same who was orator with the aforesaid Pontiff,

Christophorus Numaius, By the divine Mercy

of the Title of S. Maria Aracaeli of the H. R. C. Presbyter Cardinal,

of Forlì commonly named, faith of it

with his own hand under the attestation of his Secretary Bartholomaeus

Bentivolus, in this manner made. To all and individual

faithful of Christ, who shall inspect, read,

equally and hear these presents, salvation in the Lord eternal.

Indubitable faith we make and attest,

how; since it is that the divine clemency various and diverse

gifts of healings and graces, by the merits of B. Jacobus

of Venice, of the Order of Friars Preachers of S.

Dominic, by living-voice oracle, in the sacred Convent of S. James within the City

Forlì standing, to many piously invoking him

ceaselessly to confer does not cease; therefore

of the said city and convent both the people and the friars

of the same Order of S. Dominic, of the Congregation

of Lombardy, with the pious devotion of this kind toward B. Jacobus

inflamed, to the Apostolic See and to the most holy

in Christ Father and our Lord D. Clement

Pope VII's clemency having recourse, to the same his Sanctity

through us in their name humbly to supplicate

took care, that, both for the glory of B. Jacobus,

as for their people's and friars' great devotion

to be increased, of omnipotent God's mercy and

of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul's authority

and his own, in individual years for perpetual future times,

he would deign to grant and indulge, that of the said B. Jacobus

the feast on the day of his death, namely on the last of the month

of May, also the divine Office and the solemnities of Masses,

for the glory of B. Jacobus published and made, under

the Office of feast of double solemnly may they be able to celebrate;

within the year however, both for the said friars

at the time there dwelling, and for other seculars'

devotion, as their devotion shall require, with proper Mass and Office, also within the year to be recited

as often as need shall be, in their church or

also in the monastery of the nuns of the same Order, in

the said city and under the regimen of the same friars

standing, Mass to say or sing, or to be said or

sung to make, by friars of the said Order of Preachers

only, may they be able; similarly the aforesaid Jacobus's

commemoration, whenever the said friars

there dwelling or others coming

their devotion shall induce, there in the church and in the monastery

aforesaid, both in Masses and in the divine Office

to make may they be able; and besides that of the said church of S. James

the consecration, which on the last of May was wont to be celebrated,

to the sixth of the month of September to transfer,

and on such day to celebrate may they be able. And since his

Sanctity is wont gladly to assent to the pious vows of the faithful,

by living-voice oracle to us made above, in the year

of the Lord one thousand five hundred twenty-sixth,

on the day XXV of the month of June, and of his Pontificate year

III, both for the said peoples' and friars' devotion,

and for B. Jacobus's glory to be increased, of

Omnipotent God's mercy and of the Blessed Apostles

Peter and Paul's authority and his own, to us, on

the part and in the name of the aforesaid community and

friars humbly and piously supplicating, transferred to 6 September the Dedication of the church all and

each of the aforesaid liberally and benignly granted

equally and indulged: so that the aforesaid friars, there

at the time dwelling, this Feast, and the divine

Office and the solemnities of Masses, both on the day of his death

and within the year, as is premised, to celebrate,

and the feast of Consecration to transfer, and all

other and individual aforesaid to do and complete freely

and lawfully, and without any conscience's remorse,

may they be able and have power, with those acting to the contrary

notwithstanding any. In witness of all and

each of which, for faith and testimony, these present

our letters thence to be made, and by our and our Secretary

below-written hands to be subscribed, we have wished;

and also with our greater oblong seal's appension to be fortified

we have ordered and commanded. Given at Rome in

our houses, under the year of the Lord from the nativity of the same

MDXXVI, Indiction XIIII, on the day XXVI

of the month of June, of the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ

Father and Our Lord D. Clement, by divine providence Pope

VII, in his Third year, &c.

[3] What in the aforesaid letters published is indicated, and to be used

is permitted as Office, this Ferrarius says was wont to be recited,

until the emendation of the Breviary, by the Forlivian Dominicans:

and from his ecgraphum, which is in our possession,

below indeed proper Lessons and the Hymn we give; here

it pleases to add this Prayer: God, who through

B. Jacobus your Confessor have made your Church

with new joys to exult: grant we beseech, that

he himself for us may be a pious intercessor, who of your name

for us was always a devoted preacher.

Through our Lord &c. That however the said feast, from the company

of any day, by a feasting people to be held, more festive for the Forlivians

might be, Pope Julius III in the year MDLIV, on XI April,

to John Morono, then for the Sunday after the Ascension. of the Title of S. Lawrence in Lucina Presbyter

Cardinal, of the Order of Preachers Protector,

at the instance of Reverend Father Brother Stephen Ususmaris, of all

the Order General Master, and of the said Convent

of Friars, by similar living-voice Oracle, granted and decreed,

that the aforesaid Feast, which on the last of May was wont

to be celebrated, henceforth in perpetual future times,

in the places and by the persons aforesaid, on the Sunday

which after the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord J. C. immediately

follows, under the Double major and proper Office, with

solemn procession and pomp of oblations, just as

before he was wont, be celebrated. Reports all these things

Lucas Castellinus, in the treatise on the certitude of the glory of those Canonized

p. 140: and so it is communicated to the Venetians, before however, namely p. 85, succinctly

he had treated the same, adding, that in the same procession of the same

Blessed one Relics decently adorned are carried about,

and at the sepulchre are hung tablets, gifts, and votives.

The Venetians also, in nothing slower than the Forlivians for the cult of their citizen,

through their Orator in the sacred Congregation of Rites

insisted, and with Pope Paul V agreeing they obtained,

on XXIII October of the year MDCXVII, that the same be permitted them which

to the Forlivians.

[4] In the year finally MDCXXII, under Gregory XV, the universal

Order of S. Dominic a Decree of the sacred Congregation of Rites,

on the common everywhere of B. Jacobus's feast to be instituted, and finally to the whole Order.

of this kind elicited: Proposed, in the sacred Congregation of Rites,

of the Most Serene Republic of Venice and at the same time of the whole

Order of Friars Preachers a petition,

by which the festivity of B. Jacobus Salomonius, which by happy

memory of Clement VII first, and then of Julius

III by concession in the city of Forlì; recently however,

from the indult of Pope Paul V, and the vote of the same Congregation,

at Venice also is celebrated; in all

of the same Friars' churches and provinces to be celebrated

might be able they supplicated: the same Congregation, the vote of the Most Illustrious

Cardinals and the Secretary Referring

embracing, the petitioned indult, if to our most holy Lord

it shall please, judged to be granted. Becoming

namely the Most Illustrious Fathers judged it, that to those who

with sanctity of life by long duration of time approved,

not in the only natural place, or only in those places

where their bodies are preserved; but also everywhere

by all, who the same with them profess institute,

veneration be held. The same indeed most holy one,

having heard the sacred Congregation's propensity toward the Blessed

man, the present indult with Apostolic good-pleasure

confirmed, on the day XXII of September, in the year

MDCXXII. All which, since to the likeness of the Indult of the Forlivians

made by Julius III they proceed, are to be understood for

the same Sunday after the Ascension: which since it is movable,

nor thus conveniently could the name be inserted into the Sanctoral Fasti,

it pleased Philippus Ferrarius in both Catalogues, and Joannes

Pauli Masini in Bologna surveyed, to retain the day XXXI

May; for at Bologna by particular right also the same feast

is held, on account of the very Saint's Relics in the church of S. Dominic

preserved.

[5] For propagating the cult of B. Jacobus in its beginnings,

not long after his death, of pious men a Sodality

was instituted, from the letters of Berengarius Salomedius,

General of the Dominican Order, is established. By them he, all the Companions

of the universal Order of merits, for promoting B.

Jacobus's cult, sharers makes through these words: To the devout

in Christ beloved, all of either sex,

in the Congregation or Society for the happy and blessed

Jacobus of our Order's glory and reverence congregated

or in future to be congregated, Brother Berengarius, Sodality under his patronage instituted.

of the Friars of the Order of Preachers Master

though unworthy, salvation, and to the congregation to be joined

of the supernal Citizens. The gifts of charisms by fraternal

participation in communion profit, and the more copiously

among the minds of the possessors abound, the more largely

into the supports of neighbors by a certain derivation

slips of charity flow forth; which though to all

faithful are to be communicated, to those however ought

with more largely outflow to flow, whom the goodness of merits

raises up, and the singular prerogative of love

deservedly renders accepted. Your devotion's

merits, therefore, and the love which you bear to our

Order, with special and attentive consideration recalling;

to you of all Masses, prayers, fasts,

abstinences, vigils, labors, sermons,

and all goods, which through the Friars

of all our Order to be done by divine grace working

shall happen, the participation I grant by tenor

of the present specially. I wish besides and ordain, that

after your decease your souls in the General

Chapter devoutly and spiritually be commended, and

be enjoined for them of Masses and spiritual prayers

suffrages, just as for the Friars and Familiars

of our Order deceased is wont to be done; that with manifold

protection of suffrages, both here from evils to be protected, and in

the future may you merit into the eternal tabernacles happily

to be brought. In witness of this concession,

our seal we have caused to be appended to the presents.

Given at Forlì. Year of the Lord MCCCXV, on the day before the Nones

of July.

[6] His original and most ancient Life we found

with the Fathers of the Oratory of S. Mary in Vallicella at Rome, in

Codex H. fol. 185, transcribed under this clause, There is given the Life sent to Rome to Clement VII. Explicit

the Legend of B. Jacobus of Venice, of the Order of Preachers:

which since it was old, and consisted of decayed

and bad characters, has been faithfully renewed by

Brother Vincentius of Faenza of the same Order, with the last

miracle of Brother Sebastian added, MDXXIIII, on the day

XXII May. That last miracle had happened in the year

MCCCCLXXIII. The rest therefore all, which to the twenty-seven

after B. Jacobus's death deeds are narrated, are from those three hundred

thirty-eight, of which, within the term of twenty-eight

months from his passage found, was diligent

made inquiry by public hand with

solemn attestation, as is said no. 73. But what to

the deeds and virtues of his Life pertain, seem received from a Process,

under the same time instituted, and that within the first three or four

years; received however from some alumnus of the same Convent,

having proposed, the uncertain or doubtful, which of B. Jacobus's

virtues and miracles by many had been related, to omit;

and only those of his life and virtues

in the present Legend to write, which by diligent

investigation have been proved, or by the attestation of those worthy of faith

ascertained. The author his as of the present and seeing one's witness

nowhere alleges, with the same humility perhaps, by which his name

he kept silent. A new exemplar however that it should be written

and sent to Rome, was done by public authority I would believe of the Senate and People, for the obtaining of the yearly feast from Clement

VII to supplicate, as has been said.

[7] This Life Hieronymus Albertutius Bursellus, in the year

MCCCCXC flourishing, verbatim inserted into his book, the same had been transcribed by Bursellus, which on

the General Masters of the Order he wrote. The same one century later

at Milan did Ambrosius Taegius, in the very vast

three-volume work, which in the Library of the Convent

of S. Mary of the Graces is kept in MS. and to us was benignly communicated:

but in place of the older Prologue a new and to his

institute more proper one with these words he prefixed. The Province

of S. Dominic is called that, in which the body of the same

holy Father, who died and was buried at Bologna, rests.

This produced very many illustrious men, and is found in the MS. of Taegius. who by

the grace of preaching, sanctity of life, and honesty of morals

flourished in the Church of God: of whom however the memory

for the greater part, by the negligence of the prior Friars,

or perhaps by the too great occupation in matters, has been deleted.

Of some nonetheless the acts and names, just as

I could collect, here to be set down I have determined, to God's glory,

and the Order's honor, and the Students' spiritual

profit. In the first place it pleases to premise the Life

of Brother Jacobus the Venetian (who lies at Forli, whom Brother

Galvaneus, in his Chronicle, affirms had a father by blood

but because more wonderful, just as can be patent to one inspecting,

is approved. So Taegius, prolonging the praised Work

up to the year MDXIII, when

he is believed to have died. But Joannes Antonius Flaminius of Imola,

in the year MDXVI in new style rewove the same; and

to Brother Matthaeus Bandelli, on account of love and veneration, inscribed,

to be inserted in the book of Leander Albertus on illustrious men

of the Order, as in the next year at Bologna it appeared. Either

Life thereafter were followed, who in other languages wrote,

Italian indeed Silvanus Razzius, Joannes Thiepolus

Primicerius of S. Mark, Franciscus Merenda Forlivian

Dominican, and most recently of all Dominicus Maria

Marchesius in his sacred Diary; Spanish indeed Ferdinandus Castellius,

and French Joannes de Rechac; that I may pass over those who

more compendiously handed down the life in various idioms.

LIFE

From the Vallicellan MS. of the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome, collated with the MS. of Ambrosius Taegius found at Milan.

Jacobus the Venetian, of the Order of Preachers, at Forli in Romagna (B.)

BHL Number: 4110, 4111

FROM THE MSS.

PROLOGUE.

The splendor of the glory of God the Father and the author of human

salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ,

who to send forth of His admirable clarity

rays, to illuminate the hearts of the faithful

and to put to flight the darkness of sinners,

through all the courses of the present life, with His customary piety did not

cease; most recently in these days exhibited a new star,

with the light of His grace shining brightly, namely His

B. Jacobus of Venice, Faith and diligence of the author in writing the deeds of B. Jacobus. of the Order of Friars Preachers:

who by the splendor of holy conversation and life,

and by miracles by which in life and death he shone, evidently

half-living in many hearts devotion

and faith by supernal grace stirred up. That therefore

the notice of his sanctity and virtues to the spiritual emulators

of examples may bring forth the fruit of sacred imitation,

and may push back the detriments of harmful negligence,

his life, full of virtues, to God's glory

and the consolation of the devout, in faithful writing

we have decreed to commend: the uncertain or doubtful, which of

his virtues and miracles by many had been related,

omitting, with utmost diligence taking precaution, lest

the God of truth we be seen to extol with false praises:

for this would rather be to kindle His anger, than

to provoke mercy. Since He, who is greater than

all praise, does not need our lie, that for

Him we should speak guile. And so only those of

his life and virtues in the present Legend we write,

which by diligent investigation have been proved, or by faith

worthy attestation ascertained. What however we write in rude

style indeed, but truthful; we ascribe to His praise

and glory, who His Saints so glorifies,

and through the merits of the humble does great wonders

alone.

OLD DIVISION OF CHAPTERS.

This is the number and Order of Chapters in the Roman ecgraphum,

which because in two places I found interrupted, I wished to keep unchanged,

so that more easily it might be supplied, if anywhere shall be found

a more whole exemplar: otherwise the measure of certain

chapters, exceeding or falling short a little, would have easily persuaded

even the very numbers of paragraphs to divide otherwise,

certain Chapters in two dividing, sometimes also

three in one number gathering, especially in

the miracles.

CHAPTER I.

B. Jacobus's boyhood, entry into the Order of S. Dominic; his virtues; rigor of penance and abstinence.

[1] Blessed Father Jacobus, from the honorable city

of Venice, with father Adam, mother indeed Marchisinia

by name, Born at Venice, of the house of Salomon, took his origin.

While still however he was a little boy, his

father from this life departed: but his mother herself,

to the heavenly Spouse desiring to adhere, when still she was young,

with the boy committed to the care and trust of her mother-in-law, and with the secular

life despised, to the monastery of Nuns of

the Heavenly Ones ^a of the Cistercian Order, flew: where

long devoutly serving the Lord, her days laudably

she led, and happily consummated. There was however to the aforesaid

boy a grandmother by name Joanna, a devout woman, faithful

and provident. She in the proposal of holy widowhood

to Christ long had served: who taking the care of the boy,

him in all purity for God not for the world nourishing,

in devotion to Christ and to His mother

the glorious Virgin with all efforts she informed; the highest

diligence applying, letters and Office of B. V. in boyhood he learns, lest the boy from the company

of the bad could be turned from the way of purity and devotion:

and made him be imbued with letters, and the Office of the Blessed

Virgin to learn by heart. That however he might accustom

himself to say it daily, she promised the boy a certain

sum of money, if for one hundred continuous days himself

the Office for her he would promise to say. When

however partly from the affection of devotion, partly from

the love of money which he hoped (as is the manner of childish

innocence, namely all things to do for a price, or

with a view to a temporal reward) for one hundred continuous days,

what he had promised he had fulfilled, and his labor's

reward promised demanded; his grandmother the price,

which she had promised by laughing, denied. Which by the nod of God

was done, that the devout boy should learn, for heavenly,

and not for temporal reward, free to Christ

ministry to exhibit. Recognizing therefore himself by pious deception

deluded, which his whole life thereafter he daily recites. immediately within himself he firmed the proposal

in all his life daily that Office

to say, not for transitory reward, but for the honor

of the glorious Virgin: and from then began the devout

custom, which until the last day of his life

by no oblivion, infirmity, or occupation

did he set aside. Although however of childish age,

there was however in his mind venerable old age, which

in the purity of speech and work he showed, with mature

morals, abdicating the vanities of boys. The fellowships of

dissolute boys deserting with the better

and honest he conversed, dissolute games in his

childhood abhorring. in sacred games he delights, In one only game was he wont

to delight, namely that the boyish Mass as he knew

with boys he would chant, just as in the church he beheld

happen; the future Priest of Christ in boyish

game, as another ^b Athanasius, prefiguring. Boyhood

years transcending, boyish innocence

he conserved.

[2] Made therefore an adolescent, by a certain religious

Monk of the Cistercian Order, who in the monastery

of his mother was Chaplain, and zeal for praying. in ecclesiastical chant and divine

Office he was instructed. So indeed was he nourished in

the world, that with letters and divine offices informed, to

Religion in his time more easily he might fly: he

himself in the form of Religion and devotion handed down to him

so progressed, that under secular habit the affection of religion

he could not hide. For continually ecclesiastical

thresholds frequenting and hearing divine Offices,

reverently after the common Church devotion

to the secret little altar, which in his cubicle

from the institution of his grandmother he had adorned, he ran back

daily, and fervently and long to prayer he was free. Often

also in that very oratory he would shut himself; and the consortia of his companions

and his own avoiding, with Christ hiding,

to the Father, who sees in secret, of devotion the obedience

he exhibited.

[3] Meanwhile grew the youth informed by such morals:

and with age growing grew also grace. And when

now to him the senses of knowing the truth more fully

within him began to be, he began to spurn the pleasures of this world, the patrimony having been distributed,

and to the glory of eternal sweetness with all desires

to pant. And wishing more perfectly to dedicate himself to Christ's

service, the Order of Preachers to enter

he disposed: and when by the Friars, his urgent and devoted

petition had been admitted, with all his substance distributed,

which to him by right of inheritance pertained, so

he himself in few days for love of God to dispense studied,

that the temporal substance into perpetual

inheritance he might exchange. He found however a certain young

secular illiterate, who in the same Order

to Christ desiring to serve as a Convert wished to be received;

but he grieved vehemently, because by the Friars

poor he could not be clothed, and he himself money

for garments did not have. But blessed Jacobus,

with his proposal rejoicing and compassionating his poverty,

a part of the money, necessary for all those garments,

which in books necessary for himself he proposed

to spend, and a part of it spent on the candidate's poor garment, handed to him, lest spiritual progress

he should lose for the defect of temporal money. When

therefore the Religion garments for both prepared

had been, and B. Jacobus himself from all the solicitudes of the world

was free; when he was about

seventeen years old, together with him the aforesaid Order

he entered. Where for sixty-six years in such great

perfection and devotion he led an admirable life: with him he embraces the institute of S. Dominic,

which is not of our faculty to express, on account of

the multitude and admiration of virtues: a few however

of many can be narrated, which of him have been seen and

faithfully approved.

[4] He indeed Christ's servant, that in the observance

of the holy religion he might be instructed, pressing progress without intermission,

following the footsteps of holy examples, to such great grace of humility

and perfection in a brief time was advanced,

that to all beholding his life he was made

the norm of devotion, the mirror of youth, and

the example of religion. So great was his religion's

continual solicitude, that not in the space of one hour

would the zeal of well-doing pass over. For idleness enemy

of virtue with such great diligence he fled, that either by sacred reading's

study, or by charity's or humility's obedience,

or by devout prayer's or meditation's solace,

or by useful collation's exercise, his time and mind

he integrally occupied; never even in

all his life was he seen idle. So great was in his

mind the constancy of well-doing, that the rule of virtue,

which once in youth he undertook, until

decrepit age he did not set aside. There grew daily

in him the virtue of spiritual grace, he shines forth with various virtues. and from virtue to virtue

with daily studies he proceeded: for there shone

in him untiringly the perfection of all sanctity.

There was indeed to him in fasting continuity, in

food sparing, in bed harshness, in beddings vileness

and in clothing humility. He was also in prayer assiduous,

in contemplation fervid, in faith strongest,

in chastity most pure, in speaking useful, in conversation

sweet, in compassion pious, in counsel after sacred

reading's studies solid, in sermon right, in

good work solicitous, in obedience prompt, in walking

mature, in tribulations untiring, in convent

peaceful, in action edifying, in exterior habit despised,

in mind composed, in charity advanced, and

with all virtues adorned.

[5] After however the man of God was for several years

in the Venetian convent in sacred doctrine's exercise instructed;

in true obedience, fleeing his relatives he migrates to Forli, in perfect purity, in profound humility,

solidified by Christ's grace; knowing

blood relatives and fatherland often to be a hindrance

to those wishing to follow the way of perfection;

fearing lest his mind, which already dead to the world was,

from their presence and frequent inquiry could sometimes

from spiritual progresses be retarded; the honorable

Venetian fatherland, the solemn Convent ^c,

and the presence of relatives and known ones

deserting, to the Forlivian Convent he

transferred himself: considering himself to be able more freely to be free for Christ's

service, if from fatherland and relatives he were segregated by corporal

presence. In which place indeed,

because he could freely follow his devotions,

so great rest he found for his heart, that for the space of forty-five

years he remained in it, with a small

except of time when he was for some Convents, He undergoes some Prefectures

though unwilling, for the Subprior's office deputed.

For he was Subprior in the Convents of Faenza,

S. Severino, Forlivian and Ravenna.

This obedience therefore in the aforesaid places completed,

humbly always he was asking to the Forlivian Convent

to be assigned, choosing there to terminate his days with Christ's

good pleasure. In all the days,

in which there he lived, of the Friars and seculars with

whom he conversed, so pious affection he won for himself

that loving all by all he was

loved.

[6] The fasts of his Order and the common refectory's

life every day of his life so sedulously he observed,

that in those very fasts a dispensation never

would he wish to receive; by fasts he constantly macerates himself. nor from common refection to depart

did he wish, nor by others ever could he be drawn,

except in the last days of his life; when him grave

infirmity, decrepit old age, and his Prelate's obedience

compelled. At extraordinary hours so always

from drink he abstained, that around the end of his life, when

once to him drink was offered, he said; that fifty

years passed, outside the hour of common refection,

never except five times had he drunk. When

however a ^d pittance any however small

was given to the Friars, and from drink at extra hours abstains. always part of his portion among

the dishes he placed hidden; that the poor whom

with pious affection he always loved, sharers of his portion he might make:

but to the Lord alone desiring to please, from human

eyes as much as he could in such kind of

actions he hid himself.

[7] At a certain time there was in the city of Forli

a great defect of wine ^e, on account of which the Friars greatest

penury suffered from it. wine in dearness of food sent he disburses to the poor, But a certain

rich matron, who had him as Confessor

and Father, with the Friars' poverty and his weakness

compassionating, offered, herself to the Blessed Father, the whole

time of the aforesaid defect, daily two jars of wine

by spontaneous devotion to send. He however,

for himself unwilling that singularity to receive,

but by the compassion of two poor men known to him and very

needy moved, that offering on their account gratefully

received: and daily through a faithful messenger conscious of his secret

received the wine, and to the aforesaid needy with received license

transmitted. After many days however asked

by her, if that wine to him had been pleasing; he,

who beyond measure was a wonderful concealer of his good works,

fearing to lose their fruit, if his left should know, what his right was doing;

so replied: Your wine the best

is: I however to your charity give thanks, because to my

necessity grateful subsidy you have brought. And so

with prudent answer he was unwilling to indicate, that he had not drunk

of it, or that to the poor he had distributed it.

[8] with various affliction he exercises his body. Since blessed Father Jacobus always was to the divine

will subjected, deservedly was worthy his own body

subject to the spirit to have: with which power

and grace so solicitously he studied to use, that always

in youth and old age, healthy and sick

existing, corporeal delights he abhorred; fearing

lest the flesh to the mind should become contumacious, if not even from licit

consolations it were bridled. Whence in his bed

always all softness he refused, only over straws

a single and vile woolen coverlet having. with troublesome lying,

The straws of his bed sometimes for eighteen years

neither to be moved nor changed he permitted. In bed while

he rested, with the scapular and tunic always clothed he was,

with a vile and rough coverlet covered. In the little bed,

in garments, hair-shirt, and all beddings,

harshness and vileness he loved. In the ornaments

and coverings of his books, in straps, knives,

shoes, and other utensils whatever

always curiosity he cast off: so humble in heart

he was, with vigils, so humility in his actions he exhibited.

Vigils grave and continuous of all his life

time he observed: for late long to reading and prayer

he was free: at Matins first of all he rose,

which finished the Confessions of very many Friars and

especially of young men in the church he heard,

whom with pious zeal to devotion and purity

with examples and admonitions he urged; after these long in

prayers he watched. Before dawn however to his cell

returning, he reclined his head a little; nothing

more of sleep taking, except as much as weariness

compelled: at dawn always early first he rose.

By divine love's fire kindled however, of material

fire's consolation through all the days of his life,

in youth and old age, however much

cold was intense, entirely he refused.

Offered to him in winter fire to his hands, while

he celebrated, the punishment of cold for Christ's love

with strong soul sustaining, altogether he refused. Never

at the fire was he seen to sit: never at the fire

his feet or hands he warmed, except in the last

days of his life, abstinence from fire. in which when at refection he sat,

sometimes at the fire offered to him in a little vessel his hand

he extended. When the place of the Forlivian Convent

had a spacious garden, so most rarely he visited

it, that for a certain miracle by the Friars

it was held when in the garden he was seen: but

when others after supper in summer time were beholding it,

he himself to the church for prayer's sake transferred himself.

This however, among all these and other

very many indications of much austerity, was to the man

of the Lord wonderfully singular; that, since to himself altogether

he was austere, to others however he was pious and sweet,

and at others' congruous consolations with wonderful affection

he rejoiced.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Love of the poor and of spiritual colloquies: zeal of praying, ecstasies, gift of tears, cult of Saints.

[9] Not only the glorious Father good things to work

studied, but also good things to speak. Matth. 12, 35. And since,

as the Saviour says: A good man from the good

treasure of his heart brings forth good things, just as the law of God

his own in his heart fixed he had, so his tongue

the judgment of virtue and rectitude spoke. Always

indeed with God or about God to speak he wished, and

to these to speak others he exhorted. spiritual sermons he mixes and loves. For among

other goods of virtues, with which by Christ's grace endowed,

he was, this he had most special and notable,

that bad speech from his mouth did not proceed. Because

indeed his lips to sacred prayers and divine praises

so sedulously he dedicated, worthy indeed it was that

to his lips such grace was diffused. All testify,

with whom he had conversation, that never

they had heard from his mouth a word of adulation,

detraction, derision, duplicity, levity, or vanity:

for he had placed at his mouth a guard and a door

of circumstance to his lips; all vices of the tongue avoiding: and so he kept his ways,

that he might not offend in his tongue. If anyone with him

speaking to useless or vain or secular things speech

would have wished to draw, immediately the blessed Father a word of B.

Hieronymus to the middle would bring saying: Happy

is the tongue which knows nothing except about divine things to hold speech.

Which word he often alleged; and introducing

to the middle useful words, useless speech

with pious speaking he dissolved; which if he could not obtain,

immediately from the speakers he would depart. The words of detraction

indeed he could not at all bear,

but to those speaking them he was wont to say: if our defects

we wished to consider, never would we presume to speak

of others' defects. By sight and

hearing he was just, therefore over such words

always displeasure he showed. If at any time before

him of divisions of the country or of wars mention was made,

never was he seen or heard by word, nod, or

affection to incline to one party, but loving all

with all afflicted with wonderful affection he compassionated.

[10] As the Venerable Father, in his infirmities

and burdens whatever, was by special gift

of grace wonderfully patient, so to others' tribulations

and infirmities he was wonderful compassionate. In

his own indeed adversities he gloried, but in neighbors'

calamities he was disturbed: for the consortia of the powerful

and rich avoiding, except to them for the soul's

help he was sought; with the poor, sick, blind

and abject persons very much familiarity

he loved, with the poor seeking companionship, he gives them solaces, considering himself in such to receive Christ:

whence to them subsidies which he could and salutary

counsels in frequent colloquy he gave: so much that

scarcely to him such kind came the afflicted, who would not

depart consoled. He was wont to say to the afflicted,

when to him their tribulations they expounded: If

you knew what fruit from their tribulations the patient

receive, you would beg the Lord, that to your few tribulations

with His grace He would superadd ampler. This

however not only by word, but by deed in

his infirmities he taught, which with cheerful face and joyful

soul he tolerated. A certain poor youth from

a certain disease incurred blindness: and when he had begun

alms to seek, prayers and sermons

and churches to frequent, all of which to neglect

he was wont while he saw; asked by the blessed

Father how it was with him, he replied, on account of his blindness

himself to be very sad. To whom the pious Father said: Son

dearest, did you at the time when you saw to the preachers

and to divine offices attend? He said: Lord,

intent on gain and work, to those to be free I could little

and little I cared. Therefore said the Saint: the blind he efficaciously animates to tolerance,

Son, console yourself in the Lord, and for His judgment

be not sad: that to you the Lord has given, for grace, and

not for punishment, you should receive: for the Lord from the state

of blindness has led you to the light: for he is truly

blind, who the works of true light neglects: but who

imitates the works of sanctity, in the horrible blindness's

darknesses is not held. With these and many other persuasions

the Saint to such great relief of his heart's sadness

raised, that the punishment of blindness henceforth as grace

he reckoned. Above this also the benign Father with such great

charity moved was for him, who altogether illiterate was,

and besides the Lord's prayer no other knew

prayer; that for the relief of his misery

greater and increase of devotion, the seven penitential

Psalms, many Gospels of those which are read

in the church, the whole Office of the glorious Virgin

and the Litanies him he taught for continued days.

Which not in a brief time could be done, that an illiterate

and beggar man so much should learn and in heart retain.

Many other blind and lame, most poor

and abject, with pleasant and pious familiarity gathering,

in their tribulations with daily admonitions

and very many subsidies he strove to console; in so much

that by many, Brother Jacobus friend of the poor was called.

Called to the poor and abject, immediately

to them gladly he approached; very often however not

asked by them, them through the church with spontaneous charity

he sought, and with sacred words to instruct them was busy.

Nor however is it to be wondered, if to men

he was pious, who the zeal of mercy so

had turned into the affection of nature, that even to little birds and

to other animals with wonderful affection of compassion was moved:

for often from boys little birds, which they held tied with thread,

he bought; and them loosing he permitted to fly away,

saying, that he compassionated the little birds of the Lord, which he saw

tied in distress detained. Not however

the man of the Lord did this for this reason, since he was learned

and prudent, that the catching and death of irrational animals

he thought illicit to man,

to whom the Lord all animals subjected; but since

he was endowed with the grace of excellent piety, to all the least

animals his wonderful piety overflowed, and every

act of cruelty his benign charity abhorred.

[11] On a certain morning, while for the celebration of Mass

he wished to enter the church, to a sad one with prayer poured forth he restores cheerfulness, he met a certain youth,

with grave sadness of heart disturbed: whom

when the benign Father saw sad, him with sacred admonitions

he tried to console. And when that one because of

an injury, which from a certain neighbor of his he had received,

with too great indignation moved, could not be mitigated

nor restrained from threats; Blessed Jacobus,

to the altar to celebrate Mass approaching, wholly for

him gave himself to praying. The Mass however according to custom

most devoutly celebrated, to him he returned, whom thus desolate

he had left; and said; Son, trust in the Lord,

because soon He will free you from this sadness: for I for

you have celebrated this Mass. As soon as the word he finished,

was that one suddenly changed, and with all receding

sadness consoled.

[12] Among all the actions of his soul, by which B. Jacobus

studied to please God, this seems to have been

his special, most devoted to prayer, that in the fervor of divine love and honor,

through all the times of his life, intellect and affection

and tongue with all his strength he occupied: and although

often with Martha in the actions of charity to the neighbor

to Christ he sedulous showed obedience; with Mary

however more frequently and more willingly besides the feet of the Lord

sitting, to His contemplation and sweetness with all desires

he gaped, and with body placed on earth his soul

in heavenly things was fed. So great solicitude in

divine praises he applied, that the Choir never

at daily or nightly offices he abandoned: and

because in his youth ecclesiastical chant and divine

office plainly he had learned, never error in

any difficulty of office or defect in his presence

could be; for he himself the burden of office with unfailing

strength sustained. No one him fatigued,

no one alienated in divine praises and ecclesiastical

office saw. In his infirmities he made

force on himself wonderful, and the choir and the church as if not infirm

at the hour of office with the admiration of all

he frequented. With Matins finished and of some Brothers

heard Confessions, all the church's altars

with genuflections and prayers he visited,

and long there in heavenly consolation he remained. in ecstasy he is often caught up:

Before day for a small hour sleep with necessity

compelling he took, and immediately early in the morning rising

Mass most devoutly he celebrated. Often while

he was sought, by the Brothers he was found in the church, before

the altar standing, with face elevated: and called by the Brothers,

he did not respond: drawn however by the hand or

cape, he did not feel. Namely with cheerful countenance fixed

and immobile in his rapture he remained; and so those seeking

him had to wait, until he who above

himself was elevated, would return to himself. Afterwards to

himself returning, called by the Brothers cheerfully and humbly

he replied.

[13] endowed with the gift of pious tears, The name of the Lord Saviour, just as a jubilee in

his heart was, so in his mouth as honey grew sweet:

on which account in every speaking of his the name of the Lord

most frequently he named. When however these most worthy

names, whether Jesus, or Christ, with his mouth he pronounced;

from the sweetness of living devotion, tears

mostly he could not contain: which also

largely he poured forth, when of the venerable passion

of Christ or of the passions of the Blessed Martyrs

he spoke, or if before him another of this matter

would speak. Certain devout and useful sermons

of certain festivities of Saints in his youth

he had learned by heart, which for God's and the Saints'

reverence most frequently he ruminated: on account of

which he always retained them by heart. When however

by junior Brothers he was asked, that of some of these

a copy to them he would give, he replied: I them written

do not have; if you wish to write them for yourselves, I

will recite them to you writing: which while he did,

with such great abundance of tears he sent forth, that for the abundance

of too great tears his face to the part

other, lest the Brother should see the tears, him to turn

it was needful. The Masses he celebrated with many tears.

At extraordinary hours of day and night in some

more secret place of the church he gathered himself, and with most devout

tears the reins for a very long time he relaxed. Often however

he was found at the altar of B. Ursula, where is her and

her Blessed companions' depicted martyrdom, into

those paintings to look; and so most copiously to weep, as if

the blessed Virgins themselves before himself truly he saw being killed.

This however fervor of devotion and tears,

which in youth he had begun, all the days of his life

he without intermission preserved.

[14] wonderfully addicted to the cult of Saints The devotion however, which the man of God had

to the Saints, no man's tongue would suffice to recount.

For from his youth his heart with the highest solicitude

he applied to the Martyrology of Usuard, which

the Order of Friars Preachers continuously uses:

for that book has for individual days of the year individual

Lessons, in which many of the holy Martyrs'

passions, of very many Confessors and

of many blessed Virgins and Handmaids

of Christ the happy acts and deaths are recited. Of many

other Saints also the passions and life

in the old books of churches he had searched out:

from all of which for individual days of the whole year

he had ordered, for himself alone, for the Saints' honor secret

solemnities. For besides the daily Office

ecclesiastical, to which he was by the profession of his Order

obligated, he made for individual days of the holy

Martyrs, to whom by special he was affected with fervor,

a feast of Double or full Double, saying through himself

the whole Office integrally for the honor of those Saints,

namely all the hours, daily equally and

nightly, with the Office of Mass, always at Tertia

of this office saying the hymn, with various exercises of piety he venerates them, Veni creator Spiritus:

and besides all the above said he said daily

with nine lessons the Vigils of the dead. After

thanksgivings however, which after taking food

are said, the devout Antiphon that, Salve

Regina, always he superadded. Of many besides

Patriarchs, Prophets, Confessors, and Virgins

most frequently the solemnity as also of the Martyrs

he made: so that, for the greater part of the whole year's time, he made

daily of three special festivities the Office

whole, daily, as we said, and nightly.

In his cell he had a little altar in a certain chest

secret, which with becoming paraments according to

the diversity of festivities with much reverence

he prepared: and four candles before it

at Matins and Vespers he lit: and according to the ecclesiastical

custom of the Office incense to the little altar offering:

to the Saviour Lord and His Saints of devout heart's odoriferous

sacrifice he offered. All these things however in

youth beginning, all the time of his life he conserved.

For doing good he did not fail, knowing

that in glory he was about to receive with exultation

the sheaves, which with devotion's tears and

solicitude of good works he had sown. These things however

all while he lived were known of him, and after his happy

passage through many little notes by his hand

written fully appeared. In the aforesaid

solemnities such great gladness of devotion he was filled,

that the spiritual joy which he had he could not so

interiorly contain, but to the devout and familiar

his Saints' solemnities he would lay open: which also

in his sermons to the people most often he did,

reciting the festivities of those Saints to the people,

which within that week concurred.

[15] When the blessed Father in the Convent of Ravenna

was Superior, and on the day fifteenth of the Kalends

of December, namely within the octave of B. Martin (in which

in the Martyrology aforesaid of the Blessed martyrs

Aciscli and Victoria the passion is recited, a rose outside its time miraculously in the garden he finds. who at Cordoba

had been crowned with martyrdom ^a, where for the commendation

of their precious death on the same day

roses are reported divinely to be born and gathered) alone through

the garden of the Friars he walked, in honor of those Saints

his customary Offices fulfilling, and was delighted

in mind in the consideration of that miracle; with that pleasant

miracle, which is done at Cordoba, to be gladdened he merited

at Ravenna. For while before the rose-bed, of flowers

and leaves for that time deprived, he made transit;

he saw in that very rose-bed suddenly a most beautiful rose.

Which with gladness gathering, he felt from it

the fragrance of most pleasant odor: and it to the Brothers

he brought, in memory and reverence of the aforesaid miracle:

with all wondering, that a rose, so pleasant

and beautiful, at such time was found.

ANNOTATIONS.

In the city of Cordoba, the passion of the holy martyrs Aciscli and Victoria; where in commendation of their death, on the same day risen roses divinely are gathered: which in the present-day Roman Baronius omitted, with others substituted, without mention of Roses; doubting perhaps about the truth of the fact, which even from this seems to be confirmed. It will be permitted this more fully on 17 November to examine.

CHAPTER III.

The Saints' sepulchre opened to B. Jacobus voluntarily, a dove seen to sit on his shoulders: danger from childbirth, tumor, cancer, gout from him repelled.

[16] When the glorious Apostles of Christ Peter and

Paul the man of God with the highest affection venerated,

just as in his devotions their merits he honored, Visiting the Catacombs of the Saints at Rome,

so he wished to visit their precious bodies: whence with obtained

license he went to Rome; where also all

sanctuaries he visited. When however three Brothers in

devout pilgrimage as companions he had through the City;

it happened with the same, on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord,

after the solemnities of Masses to the church of B. Sebastian

to come: entering however the church no one

did they find. With prayer there made devout, they wished

into a chapel of that church contiguous to enter,

which the Catacombs is called, where anciently of the blessed

Apostles Peter and Paul had been deposited the bodies;

and approaching to the door they found it

diligently with iron bar closed and key fastened.

And when no one they could find, to ^a whom for

opening of it they should have recourse, individually still

they searched diligently, if perhaps by some skill

they could open the door. In vain however laboring, and

the matter as impossible dismissing, with prayer alone poured to God he opens the bolted door, thence began they

to depart. But also when to the principal door of the church

of B. Sebastian they came that they might depart; B. Jacobus,

with confidence in the Lord strengthened, turned to his companions, said:

Let us not depart, Brothers, but for the Lord's sake go back

with me: for I hope in the Lord, that He himself

to us shall deign to open. A little within himself praying,

with the Brothers he went back to the door, which they had found

with key and bar fastened; whose bar

when with hand lightly he had touched of his own, immediately opened

was the door, as if with key in no way it had been fastened. Then

entered all into the Catacombs, and that interior visitation

at pleasure made, and devotion completed,

to the Lord giving thanks, to their own they returned.

When however Brother Alexander of Faenza, who among

the companions was the principal, said to him on the way: Father,

on account of your merits God did for us a miracle;

replied the lover of humility: I beg you, dearest Brothers,

for the Lord's sake, that of this matter to no one anything

you report.

[17] Hearing at Rome the blessed Father, that of the blessed

Apostles Peter and Paul the heads, with many Relics

precious, in that venerable Basilica ^b, which

is called Holy of Holies, deposited were preserved; [desiring to celebrate at the heads of SS. Peter and Paul, suddenly the wish is granted to him.] he desired

at its venerable altar to celebrate: and when

he had heard this to be unusual and difficult, that in that place

it would be permitted to outsiders to celebrate; he prayed the Lord,

that to him that grace He would deign to confer. Whence

in Christ's benignity confiding, on a certain morning while

thither he approached, Mass in the house of the Friars to celebrate

he did not wish, hoping he would have from the Lord the grace

which he asked. And when the chapel he entered, the Sacristan

of that place, immediately seeing him, before the blessed Father

said anything, anticipated him. To whom reverently

approaching, he began to inquire, if a Priest

he was, and if on that very day he had celebrated Mass.

And when the man of the Lord had replied, that both a Priest

he was, and on that very day he had not celebrated; said that one; I beg you, dearest Brother,

that at this venerable altar you celebrate: for

a chance happened, on account of which is suffering an impediment

he who today should have celebrated. Who giving thanks

to the Lord, with much consolation of mind, what he had desired

he fulfilled.

[18] A certain devout matron of Forli, by name

Florentina, a dove was seen to sit on the shoulders of him hearing confessions. reported, that on a certain day at

the feet of the blessed man Jacobus in the church of the Friars of Forli

for Confession she sat; she saw suddenly upon

his right shoulder a dove white and most beautiful:

and when seeing it she said; Father, do you see

the dove, which upon your shoulder you have? He

replied: I command you, daughter, in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ, that as long as I live to no one shall you manifest

that you have seen this dove. Which said the dove to

a window flew of the church, which over his head

was, and thence going forth from her sight was withdrawn.

[19] He himself heals desperate scrofula: A certain man of Forli, Peppus Zelonis by name,

had a daughter of about fifteen years,

whose throat, long and foully, by the passion of scrofula

had been corroded: and when the remedies of physicians altogether

had failed, to the King of France, according to the counsels

given to him, he desired to lead the girl: but with money

failing him for his expenses, with heart equally

failing, wonderfully he was sad. Knowing however that

the blessed Father Jacobus in wonderful manner compassionated

was to the poor and afflicted, leading with himself the girl

to him, his own poverty he expounded to him, and

the girl's infirmity he showed. The venerable

man, with wonderful compassion moved, and in the Lord's piety

confiding, his hand upon the throat he placed: and consigning

her with Christ's seal, said: Trust in the Lord,

daughter, because soon He shall free you: nor was it necessary for

your healing for you to undertake a journey of so much labor. With these

departing wholly to praying he gave himself; Christ's

grace however to his prayers consenting, before they

to their own house came, the girl was integrally

freed. Immediately therefore the father with

the girl returning, both for the healing thanks gave, and the freed

throat showed. To whom he commanded, that from

the Lord alone they should recognize the grace, and that through

him the Lord this had done to none of men they should intimate.

[20] A certain woman of Forli, for several days

with the pains of childbirth tortured, with all human

remedy failing, she expedites childbirth for one long laboring: having no power of giving birth, was thought

to die in a brief time: who calling her husband said:

Since all to me are lacking remedies, this only of remaining

I have, that the most holy that servant of God Brother Jacobus

of Venice be sought, that he may deign for me the Lord

to beseech. Quickly he came to him, and

his wife's danger and devotion expounded: and when

the pious Father had replied, himself the Lord would beseech;

said that one: I beg also, Father, that something you would send

her which you have touched with your hand. Blessed

Jacobus to the cell going, brought him a certain little note,

which with his own hand he had written, and said: From my

part this little note hand to your wife, and tell her to be of strong

soul, because shortly she shall be freed. When therefore

the woman, who still by the aforesaid was held in anguishes,

the little note with devotion had received, and in her bosom

her own had placed; immediately two sons she bore, of whom

one was dead, the other alive. This also wonderful

was, that when she began to give birth, a certain neighbor that

to her giving birth she might assist was quickly summoned: who

quickly running, found her now from every impediment of childbirth

totally freed.

[21] There was at Forli a certain young woman, by name

Christiana, whose right foot's anklebone a horrible cancer,

while she was eighteen years old, with the sign of the Cross he heals one suffering from cancer, terribly

was corroding: her mother, a widow, since she had her

as her only one, full of sadness, with all efforts the remedies

of physicians seeking, did not spare labors

nor expenses. With human however failing help,

the girl's danger always to worse proceeded.

At length with the foot's and leg's strength failing, for six months

in bed she lay, in no way able by her own

strength to rise: for the foot whole with the leg up to

the knee gravely had swollen, and the cancer the foot with continuous

augmentations with sedulous corrosion devoured. And when

through physicians with deliberation taken counsel was given to the mother,

that she would permit her daughter's foot to be amputated; the mother

made very sad, but in the Lord Jesus Christ's piety

confiding, said to her daughter: My daughter, since

human remedies fail us, let us run back to Christ.

Our Father, Brother Jacobus of Venice,

let us call: our sins both let us confess, and

let us beg him, that for us the Lord he may beseech:

for I hope, since he is a true servant of Christ, that

God through his merits will help us. Calling therefore

the Father aforesaid, all their sins to him generally

they confessed. Absolution made, while the Saint

wished to depart, the girl's mother prostrate at his feet,

said: I beseech, Father, that a prayer for my daughter

you would pour to the Lord, because I hope to her through your prayers

health to be restored. To whom when he replied, I

for her gladly will pray, she said: I wish, Father, that before

your departure you do this: for I know that you can

free her. To whom the man of God said: from humility refusing first to do this: Not is this

mine, daughter, to do: not is this mine: for not

do merits suffice: but with true faith run back to

Christ. She however, with devout violence

seizing his cape, said: And I beg you,

that in Christ's name this grace to me you confer.

Then the servant of Christ, magnificent in faith and with compassion

moved, with knees bent and hands raised,

a devout prayer he directed to the Lord; then

rising, and approaching the lying girl,

with the sign of the Cross her foot in Christ's name he consigned,

and said: Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,

because soon He will console you. Which said immediately

he departed, and that putrid and horrendous wound

was so immediately perfectly healed, that not even a scar

at all, nor any sign of infirmity or

wound on that foot could further appear, with the Lord working,

who alone does great wonders.

Again calling him back, and giving him thanks,

the miracle made by his merits they showed.

The blessed man, however, true lover of humility, unwilling

by human tongue's attestation to be praised; them with sacraments

wonderful adjured, that as long as he lived to no one

at all should they reveal it.

[22] A certain Nun of the monastery of B. Dominic

of Forli, by name Ormandia, from the nun gout he expels, toward the aforesaid Father

while he lived had great devotion.

At a certain time however for six weeks she was so

with the pain of arthritis burdened, and of the whole body's strength

deprived, that within the aforesaid number of days

never could she rise from bed by herself, nor

in any way walk. When however on a certain day, her own and

the Sisters' on her account pain considering, in mind

equally she was burdened not a little; B. Jacobus the Father,

absent indeed, but still living, within

herself devoutly and confidently she invoked, saying: My Father

dearest, servant of God most high, Brother Jacobus, I know that you

to the Saviour Lord are so accepted, that if for me to pray

you shall wish, to me health forthwith you will obtain. Wonderful

matter! As soon as these words she finished, from the burden aforesaid

herself relieved feeling, she rose: and she who at first

without the Sisters' help could not move herself, by her own

strength through the whole house freely as she wished

walked.

[23] A certain woman, Clara by name, on account of her son's

death so was absorbed by sadness for many

months, that neither to church to go was she able, and dangerous from son's death sorrow. nor anything

to work; the care of household affairs altogether

she had set aside; her son, who was remaining, as if to see she could

not; all things to her into loathing were turned, and in

nothing except in tears and groaning could she delight:

words consolatory from no one to hear she could bear, on account

of which she was feared by many, lest into fury from anguish

she would turn. When however on a certain day, as if by

violence, to the house of the Friars Preachers she had been

led, and to her after Masses had been the blessed Father

called; seeing her with such grave and desperate

perturbation of mind detained, her with charity

correcting, said: I command you, on the part of the Lord Jesus

Christ, that you put aside sadness, and that as a faithful Christian

you devoutly frequent the church. To her replying,

that she could in no way do this, said: Go secure,

because I for you will pray to the Lord. With her therefore

departing, so was suddenly and totally from her heart

erased the sadness, that in her no remnants of bitterness

remained.

[24] an incurable tumor healed by his saliva, A certain neighbor of the Friars in Forli, by name

Tomasina, had a certain tumor upon

her nose, which after some days resolved, left there

a blister with itching. After some days however

the tumor was renewed, and after few days in like manner

resolved, left a certain torn blister. Again

and again according to the aforesaid manner

the tumor grew, and again in like manner was loosed.

This trouble, with no small pain,

for nearly two years she endured: with many

medicines applied, in nothing did she profit. On a certain therefore

day, while for the Confession of her sins at

the feet of B. Jacobus she sat in the church, the blessed Father by chance

spat on the ground. She came secretly, with him not noticing:

and from reverence of his sanctity, of his

spittle she gathered with her finger, and the aforesaid place of infirmity

with the saliva and devotion she anointed. Receiving therefore

absolution and blessing from him, she found herself

from the aforesaid pain totally freed, so that

it she further did not suffer.

[25] A certain man in the city of Forli upon another's

Wife so disorderly affected had fixed his eye, insane love restrained.

that before her house daily passing, and with another

simulated cause her very often house entering,

with words and looks to the woman grave trouble he caused.

When however fearing God she had had him asked,

that from such kind of frequenting he would desist;

he always did worse. She however fearing lest

from this scandal and some danger should follow,

if to her husband's notice it should come; to B. Jacobus

with faithful mind she ran back, beseeching that he would ask

the Lord, that to this trouble a remedy to apply

He would deign. And when for her a prayer he had made,

that vain man so was from his foolishness changed,

with no man cooperating further, that thereafter

that way to make, or to the aforesaid woman to bring trouble

any was not seen.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Various infirmities cured: a horse to life, and a boy injured by it restored to health: secrets known, notable chastity.

[26] When the Forlivian people, on account of B. Jacobus's

extraordinary sanctity which they had seen in him, Headaches the Blessed heals for one,

him with wonderful veneration venerated;

and after the celebration of his Mass, to the kissing

of his hands, flowed in throngs;

it happened on a certain day among others a certain woman

to be present, by name Berta, who for three months

with grave and continuous head pain had been vexed:

many remedies indeed she had tried, but in none

could she be helped by physicians. Who when she saw to the kissing

of the man of God's hands the people flowing, approached

she also: and when his hand she had kissed,

was immediately from the head pain totally freed.

[27] Another certain matron, by name Beatrice, often

the pain of head was wont to suffer: and to another: coming however

on a certain day to the blessed Father that she might confess

with him, while he to her Absolution conferred,

and his hand upon her head placed, together with

Absolution he conferred health. After a few days

with the pain returning, returned she also to the Father; and in manner

similar, while in Absolution his hand he imposed

on the head, suddenly the pain vanished. Again when after some

days, was renewed the pain, she returned to the customary remedy;

and so for many times, at the touch of the holy

hand with the pain vanishing, received continually the benefits

of health.

[28] Of a certain physician, neighbor of the Friars, an untamed horse

in the house of the Friars Preachers of Forli

was pasturing in the cloister; upon which a certain boy,

about ten years old, by childish levity

led, wished to mount; and with foot in the noose of the rope

placed which the horse on his neck had, with the horse terrified

and a leap from fear giving, so was

the boy by the noose of the rope through the foot bound, the horse with a club killed to life

that with the horse running he equally was dragged. The horse however from

this more by terror terrified, now with the front

now with the hind feet struck

the boy and dragged him, whom also with frequent blows he struck

on the head. With Friars however many to such

sad spectacle running, and the boy from

death wishing to free; one of them, when

remedy any he saw not; with a great club seized

and strong, the horse with many blows struck on the head,

wishing to kill it if expedient, that through

its death the boy might be freed from death: the horse indeed

on the ground dead fell, the boy however fell

half-alive. The Friars sad vehemently made for

the death of the horse, but more for the danger of the boy whom

they feared to die; raising him, who by himself to rise

or move altogether could not, him they carried

within, that him with the remedies they could

they might help. Meanwhile another Friar, mindful of the sanctity

of B. Jacobus, ran to him, who in the cell

was: and with all things which had happened narrated, the boy by it injured he restores to health. he asked

that for the boy and the Friars' sadness the Lord he would beseech.

Hearing Christ's servant the case of sadness,

with compassion moved and in the Saviour's piety

confiding, said: Let no one doubt, no one be sad: for

merciful God will help us. And immediately rising

he entered the church, and with prayer there made brief

the horse revived, having no wound at all of striking

or sign of swelling: and the boy, who before

lay immobile, was immediately restored to full

health. Who immediately, namely the boy and the horse, on their own

feet healthy and uninjured to their own houses

returned.

[29] There was to the servant of the Lord a custom humble and

devout, arthritic pain, gladly to receive any poor, and with

them about heavenly glory benignly to confer. Among others

however one poor blind man, by name Hieronymus,

he had as very familiar, to whom on account of

Christ greatest consolation he showed;

on account of which that one, by his benign paternity attracted,

to him very often came. Of this man's faithful

attestation it has been ascertained, that while for much

time with arthritis pains in hands and feet,

and in all the joints of his body, very long

he was burdened; nonetheless to him very often he came,

desiring by his doctrine and sacred counsels to be recreated.

This wonderful for much time he experienced,

that while he spoke with him, that pain

in his presence in no way he felt;

when however he departed from him, the pain, which in the Saint's

presence was an exile, him in the customary way tormented.

Always therefore this in his presence he had,

that the arthritis pain he did not feel; with the blessed

Father dead, at his sepulchre from those pains totally

he was healed.

[30] and of the eyes by his presence he relieves: The same also devout man asserted similar to himself

to have happened: for when in one eye long grave

pain he had, which him continually afflicted;

always when with the blessed Father he spoke, that pain,

as if the holy man's presence fearing, him

to afflict did not dare: when however he departed from

him, greatest pain he felt, on which account him

more often he visited.

[31] Narrated a certain Forlivian matron,

devout and prudent, to a deaf one he restores hearing, by name Druda, that while from

a certain infirmity she had been made deaf, so that for

a year nothing except by great clamor she could hear;

many times within that year, just as she was wont,

to B. Jacobus she had confessed. This however with certainty

always she experienced, that, notwithstanding

the punishment of deafness, him very softly speaking

so without all impediment and difficulty

she heard and clearly understood, just as she was wont to do

when most perfectly she heard: when however

she departed from him, immediately as before deaf she was. This

always speaking with him manifestly she proved; when

however the servant of God instantly she begged, that for whole

and continuous her hearing's recovery the Lord

he would beseech, the blessed Father, as if of futures foreknowing,

replied; Patience have, because shortly you shall be freed.

With the man of God dead therefore, the aforesaid matron

came to the church, where his body was buried;

and when many miracles to be done she saw, she prayed

the blessed Father, that her from that misery he would free.

With prayer devoutly completed, home she returned: and

after half an hour she felt within her head a crashing

something, as if many reeds were broken:

which done, she was immediately from all deafness

cured.

[32] secret knowledge in religious state vacillating one he confirms, A certain young Brother from Borgo San Sepolcro,

by name Francis, of the Order of Servants of B.

Mary, who was conventual at Forli, by the malign one's

persuasion deceived, had deliberated shortly from

the vow and habit of his profession to spring back. And when

that deliberated evil to no one to manifest he presumed,

but for himself a day and hour was watching, in which he could

without impediment what he had conceived to fulfill;

the glorious Father B. Jacobus, of that Brother,

whom he had never seen, the name, surname, and

proposal learned with the divine Spirit revealing: and with received

license immediately to the place where the Brother was he approached,

and asked from the Friars that young Brother

to himself be called. Asked the Brother, wondering what

he wished, came to him. Whom the discreet man and

full of charity drawing aside, between himself and him

alone with charity rebuked, and with salutary

admonitions began from his proposal to recall. When however

he the secret conception of his mind to confess was unwilling

from shame and fear, the Saint said: Son, He

who knows the thought of men, this to me has revealed;

of me however nothing doubt, because correction

your, not confusion I seek. Seeing

he that the thought of his heart to the blessed Father had been

divinely revealed, and hearing the blessed Father's salutary

admonitions, both his fault forthwith confessed,

and changing his proposal in the Order consoled remained:

after the death of the servant of God B. Jacobus,

to God's glory, these things which we have reported in order

he narrated.

[33] Omnipotent God, from whom all goods proceed,

His servant Jacobus with such great honesty of virtues

adorned, adorned with every kind of virtues, that his morals and acts to all

beholding his conversation provided edification:

so brightly indeed shone in

him the love of purity, that not only from evil,

but also from every appearance of evil so he kept himself immune,

that no one ever of him presumed

anything of bad judgment or bad testimony to bring forth according to

custom; because with simple and right life in all

his actions walking, words and acts of simulation

and duplicity he abhorred. To Brothers and Companions

in all his life benevolent, obsequious, grateful,

and humble he always was. In the Convent with all

so sweet and peaceful he was, that a word of injury,

disturbance, and bitterness to brother or

secular, in all his life, he is not heard to have brought forth.

To Prelates obedience, to the older reverence,

to the sick compassion, to the desolate consolation,

to the younger erudition, and to all edification

he showed. Guests from anywhere coming

with cheerful and pious affection he received. If anything by view of piety

to him given or sent had been, to interior and

exterior needy gladly bestowed he saw it.

In prosperous things he was not lifted up, in adverse things he was not broken.

The Constitutions of his Order, of Chapters

and of Prelates the admonitions, with all zeal and willing soul

integrally he observed. in regular observances,

of all Brothers the mirror he was and form.

A lover and observer of silence chief he always was.

And since the friendship of God, good delight, and

a rejoicing heart enlivens the face; pleasantness of face in

all his successes he showed: but the world's

praise and glory despising, to heavenly glory

with all desires he panted. A life in all things

irreprehensible he led. So always he lived as if daily

about to die. Of two also of his Confessors,

who his general Confession several times heard,

with firm assertion has been found, that the unblemished

splendor of virginal cleanness perpetually he kept, and

his heart with mortal sin's contagion was never stained:

the same also asserted the Brother, who on the third day

before his death his general Confession

heard.

CHAPTER V.

The disease of cancer patiently by B. Jacobus tolerated and honored with miracles: foreknown and piously undergone death.

[34] When omnipotent God His servant Jacobus,

a faithful workman, to the eternal reward to bring

had decreed; The cancer disease patiently he conceals a grave first

cancer ulcer his breast struck; that so much more glorious

he might be in heavens, the more for love of Him grave

punishments with patience he had tolerated on earth. Which

disease for nearly four years' space the sacred breast

with continuous devouring corroded. But who to the exterior

breast inflicted punishment, to the interior heart conferred

the grace of patience; that the body's punishment always

would augment the mind's virtue. For nearly for a year

that punishment so from all he hid, that no one perceive

could that by any passion he was burdened: when

however in the washing of his tunic, after a year nearly elapsed,

had been by the sign of blood of his infirmity ascertained;

he was compelled to show the wound of the breast,

which for Christ's love patiently and humbly

he hid; and when applied to him were some helps

of medicine, no liberation he was able corporally

to have, nay rather he did not wish: who however to others in infirmity

similar and to many others the grace of health

while he lived imparted: with divine providing this

clemency, since to those loving God all things cooperate

unto good, and virtue in infirmity is perfected.

The wound therefore so was enlarged, that a hen's

egg freely could it receive: and when horrible

it was and putrid, and when for medicine it was opened

stench it sent forth, and worms often gushed

from it; never did he complain, never a groan

from pain he sent forth, and sustains, never sad did he appear;

but to God always giving thanks cheerfully, and most patiently

sustaining, the customary devotional Masses and his Saints'

offices, and also the rest of holy Religion's

exercises, devout and solicitous he discharged.

The medicinal remedies however with weariness he seemed

to receive, who to himself for Christ's love in his

infirmities was pleased. At a certain time,

when for several days that wound by his servant to be seen

and to be changed he had not permitted; fearing the Brother lest

too much the wound should rot, with such art he forced him. A small lamb

before him he led while he lay, and

with sword seized at it he pretended he wished in his

presence to slaughter: but the blessed Father the Brother with tears

begged, lest that animal of God he should harm.

To whom when the Brother said, Unless you permit

your wound to be changed as I shall wish, this lamb I will kill;

immediately for the lamb's freeing, he himself the Lord Christ's

lamb, to his hands gave himself, for his pleasure to be handled.

[35] It was however to this man of the Lord wonderful, that

while the wound of his breast when it was opened often

stench sent forth, a wonderful however fragrance of odor

most frequently proceeded from him. For testifies

a very great multitude of devout faithful, to have felt from

him to come forth an unaccustomed fragrance of most pleasant odor, and nonetheless a sweet odor of itself thereafter breathes.

to no aromatic thing similar. Some indeed at the touch

of his garments, which however were humble and despised;

and others in the kissing of his hands, especially

when Mass he had celebrated; others indeed from his mouth,

while he spoke, the sweetest odor to come forth

felt; that by exterior sign of so great odor it might shine,

that his mind by virtues refreshed, was wholly fragrant

before the Lord.

[36] When on account of decrepit age and grave sickness

his body almost dead he had, only

devotion to Christ lived in him: About to pray in decrepit age and disease singularly he is strengthened that he could deservedly

with the Apostle say: I live now not I, but lives

in me Christ. Gal. 2, 20 His devotion's fervor,

which in youth he had begun, so strongly and delightfully

in old age he kept, that not for an hour

from him could it desist; nay to devotion

ampler with continuous augments he proceeded.

When however, from too great old age and body's debility,

further by stairs or steps to ascend

he was not able, nay scarcely his feet from the ground to raise he could;

to the steps however of altars to pray or celebrate,

as often as he wished, freely without difficulty

any he ascended. Asked by the Friars,

how to those steps so he ascended freely,

when to other steps altogether incapable he seemed;

he said: If I should much gold be about to gain, or

to the Papacy even to be promoted, for this cause to ascend

upright the steps of these altars I could not;

but if I must there pray or celebrate, this from the Lord

grace I have, that without difficulty thither I ascend

swiftly: which daily experience most evidently

approved.

[37] At the time when the blessed Father with the cancer ulcer aforesaid

was burdened, a certain matron, food for the sick one preparing oil divinely is augmented, who great

reverence had toward him, through a messenger asked,

that crispels from herbs and flour mixed,

which commonly they call ^a fritters, for his dinner with

oil she would prepare: who then in urgent household business

occupied, her certain poor neighbor

called; and a little vessel to her with oil giving,

asked, that for the blessed Father she would complete, what she

occupied very much could not do. She with the vessel received departed, and with willing soul to prepare food

disposed: but when all the oil which in the vessel

was into the pan she had poured, of such quantity it was not,

that for the preparation of that food it would suffice. When

the woman was sad, because of oil sufficiency she had not,

and was ashamed to the matron to return for oil;

suddenly that oil, of which little there was, so

grew and filled the pan, that on account of super-abundance

too great it was needful more oil from the pan

to be removed than at first had been added. The frying

completed, the oil, which in such cooking

is wont to be consumed and lessened, so super-abounded,

as if in it no cooking had been made, and

to fire placed it had not been: on account of which the poor

woman more still of it she put back, than in the vessel

at the beginning she had found. When however to B. Jacobus,

what miracle had happened, she had reported; he replied:

My daughter, that oil with thanksgiving preserve,

which to you sent the Lord Jesus Christ. Similar

also happened to two other matrons, and several times,

for him preparing food; for oil not only

could not be consumed, but was besides by his merits

augmented.

[38] Here one chapter to the transcriber escaped or in the numbers

of Chapters to be marked the scribe erred: which below again

we shall note. With the holy man's body's strength failing,

grew daily the devotion of his mind: for although

with too great difficulty he walked through the house, with

much however devotion Mass daily he celebrated.

When however on the day on which Mass last he celebrated, to

B. Andrew's altar he approached; was present immediately before the Mass's

beginning a certain religious and honest woman, a tumor from a sick one he expels,

neighbor of the Friars, by name Helena, having a great tumor

in the right part of the throat, which nearly for a year

she had endured, nor could from it by physicians'

art be cured. But because the preceding night by

greatest pains she had been tortured, so that from the vehemence of pains

rest she could not find; she hoped herself

able from the aforesaid torment to be freed, if the hand of the blessed

Father Jacobus to touch perhaps she might merit. To whom this devoutly

asking the Saint replied: Wait, daughter, until

I shall complete the Mass, and then what you ask I shall fulfill.

The Mass devoutly completed, with the holy hand the place

of tumor and pain he touched, and with Christ's seal

he consigned: which done from the altar both departed; and

she immediately toward home without delay her journey taking,

before from the Friars' church she went out, with the tumor vanishing

and the pain put to flight, was continually

integrally freed.

[40] With omnipotent God's grace disposing to all

His servant's labors an end to impose, a little before death no stench from the cancer he gives. and the reward

of eternal glory to render his merits; the holy man's

little body, by long sickness wasted, so was

of strength deprived, that for the four last days

of his life, by his own strength from bed to rise he was unable.

For up to those days, although beyond measure

heavy in body he was and weak, with devotion

greatest Mass daily he celebrated, so much in Christ's

love more fervent, the more swiftly his life's term

to approach he felt. Within those days however

the Sacraments of the Church with the greatest devotion he received.

His wound's stench, which often was wont to be felt,

within the mentioned four days totally was extinguished.

[41] On a certain evening, while in that very infirmity he lay,

on account of thirst's anxiety, which from fevers

he suffered, sometimes his servant a glass ampoule

full of water at the head of his little bed upon a board placed, a glass vessel by his contact fallen to the ground sheds nothing of water.

that a remedy in the night ready he might have, if thirst

he should suffer the burning. And when in the night that little glass

vessel with his own hand he wished to take, his hand so

he struck against it, that from on high it fell below:

and the mouth of the vessel, with no covering closed, was turned

below, and so inverted through a great hour of the night

until morning it remained. In the morning however the servant the vessel

gathering, was greatly amazed, that the glass vessel

fragile, from that fall could in no way be broken; and that

at summer time, from the inversion of the vessel, was unable from

the water to be lessened anything or to be poured out.

[42] The desired day arriving therefore, on which the glorious

Father with the burden of flesh laid down was about to ascend to

Christ; foreknowing his death, that day integrally in divine praises

he occupied, his Hours and his Saints'

Offices through himself saying in the little bed. With many however frequenting

his cell, and how it was with him asking,

well it was with him to all he replied humbly:

but that his spirit in that blessed expectation

freely could be directed to the Lord, them immediately

he licensed benignly. From his words however could be known

manifestly, that the hour of his transit to him had been

by the Lord ^a revealed. For while at the ^b sixth hour about to die

by the Friars he was believed, and on this account with the signal made

the Friars with haste to his transit for the commendation

of the soul gathered; to the Friars he said:

Too soon you have been called, since not yet has come my hour.

With the Convent departing, after the ninth hour he began

from the servants about the vespertine hour diligently to inquire:

and the answer received, that that hour not yet

was present; he asked that they all depart, and that alone with

the Lord to be free they would permit. And when the Friars frequently

returned, from all those coming about the vespertine

hour desirable he asked. piously he undergoes that, With the signal made for Vespers

and Vespers in the church terminated, thinking

one of the servants that for this reason so he had been about the vespertine

hour solicitous, that at the due hour Vespers he might say,

said to him: Father, here is the hour, about which today so

solicitously you asked: if you wish, I shall call to you Brothers, who shall say

Vespers for you, since you in soul weak

are. To whom he said: It is not expedient, son, for all my hours

integrally I have said, and now from Vespers freed

I am: from then however no one to be licensed he wished.

Forthwith however he began of the body's strength to be deprived: and

while for the Brothers' calling the signal was made, a Brother

a certain cross to him offering said: Trust, Father,

in the help of the Crucified, and no danger you shall fear.

He indeed, with eyes raised upward, said: I do not fear,

son: I do not fear, son. With the Brothers indeed the Office of commendation

of the soul pursuing, he with them equally

said the Office. And while with them he said the Litany,

with eyes raised to heaven, and made cheerful in face,

to the Redeemer Christ the spirit he rendered. As soon

as he migrated to the Lord, the wound of his breast,

which of such great magnitude was as has been said, the cancer wound suddenly closing. so

was consolidated, that scarcely from it a thin scar's vestige

appeared. He migrated however to Christ glorious

His servant B. Jacobus, in the year of grace one thousand three hundred

fourteenth, on the day last of May, on Friday ^c

sixth, on the feast of holy glorious Virgin Petronilla,

in the year however of his age eighty-third, completed

indeed in Christ's service in the Order of Friars Preachers

in his sixty-sixth year.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

The flowing together of the city to B. Jacobus's funeral, various miracles then wrought.

[43] Although all the Friars, who had known the blessed man's life

full of virtues, With the city flowing together to the funeral, him

did not doubt to have flown to heavenly glory;

nothing however of unaccustomed novelty presuming to do,

and because much still of the day was remaining, and

the heat at that time was intense; they wished him,

with no people called together, with humble honor in the Friars'

cemetery to bury. With God however better disposing,

who glorifies those who honor Him; although by the Friars

his death had not been announced to outsiders, suddenly

through the whole city of Forli and its suburbs

resounded the voice of his transit. Forthwith however the universal

multitude of people, of either age and sex,

with works, offices, exercises, and any occupations

set aside, to the place of the Friars with such sudden

celerity ran, that blessed each thought himself,

who at the touch of the holy body could another

anticipate. Meanwhile the Friars, immediately after his transit,

wrapping the body and on a bier to the church

wishing to bring, met innumerable crowds

rushing within the cloister. the body of garment for relics stripped breathes an odor, The crowds however with violence

devoutly rushing on them, the body with the bier

setting down, and with greatest devotion touching,

the garments, with which the body had been wrapped, into small pieces

for Relics they tore: so that in a brief

time it was needful him three times completely

to clothe. The odor however wonderful of unheard and unknown

fragrance, from the sacred body coming forth, those touching

it with wonderful devotion gladdened. Brought however to

the church the body, was upon the altar by the people placed,

then on account of the supervening multitude

to diverse places it was brought: from the multitude however

too great flowing in, within three days it could not be buried.

As soon however as into the church was brought the body,

many miracles on account of his merits divinely shown

were.

[44] A certain woman from Valdopso of the Forlivian diocese,

by name Agnes, dwelling at Forli, with sudden

slip, while the blessed Father lived, fell: and when upon

her left hand in that very fall to support herself she wished, to whom the broken arm is restored,

the bone of her arm next to the fist into very many parts

was broken and divided. With many however applied

physicians' remedies, for several months neither could be solidified

nor cured, nor of hand or arm could

she help herself. To Blessed Jacobus therefore, while

his blessed death in the neighborhood was, approaching, several times she asked

him, that for her God he would beseech: to whom always

Christ's servant said: Endure daughter patiently, because

the Lord soon you from this infirmity will cure. With the man of the Lord

dead therefore, when at the hour of his transit to

touch him the whole city ran together, the woman

herself with the first ran; and to the bier approaching

said: Where is, Father, your promise, by which to me in

a brief time the future health you promised? I beseech,

that now for me you pray to the Lord. And with body

his touched, with arm and hand where the fracture was;

immediately the bone of the arm perfectly and integrally was consolidated,

and (as Christ's servant had promised) she received

whole health.

[45] Missing.

[46] A certain woman, by name Brunetta, of the city

of Forli, having an arm for long times

swollen, and a sick one is tightly squeezed by his hand: his hand on the bier resting opening,

her arm in his she placed in the hand: so

for it was for three days tender and tractable his flesh,

that in him no hardness, no rigidity was;

for his arms and legs could be bent and extended;

his hand and fingers could be closed and opened, bent,

drawn back, and extended, as when he lived.

When however the aforesaid woman her hand within his hand

placed, he her hand so strongly

squeezed and held, that with the multitude of people seeing

long from him she could not be separated; the vestige even of the imposition

of the holy man's thumb on her arm further

could not be deleted. But what that touch wished,

since the woman from the swelling of hand and arm cured

was not, has hitherto remained altogether unknown to us.

This however appears not a little wonderful, that

the hand of a dead man so strongly squeezed the hand of a living one:

of this matter however the judgment to Him alone we leave,

to whom nothing is unknown, who knows all things before

they be done.

[47] an arthritic, A certain man, by name Nicolas, of nation

Forlivian, with arthritis passion direly burdened, the body

of the holy man embracing on the bier, immediately was freed.

[48] A certain hunched man, by name Picinus, who a great

hump had had for about twenty-six years, and a hunched are healed,

and with his left ear could not hear, approaching

to his bier, with brief prayer made from both

passions was cured. In whose curing, that the servant

of the Lord's virtue might be known to all, was made in

the campanile of the Friars a ringing of bells by themselves,

with no men at all giving work.

[49] On the third day from the blessed Father's transit, within the church

before the altar of the glorious Virgin in a humble monument,

with strong cement and bricks enclosed,

the precious treasure with wonderful devotion of the people

was deposited: upon which was placed a wooden grating,

until a stone for the covering of the tomb might be prepared. and many sick to the buried body, even then sweet-smelling.

For three other days with no other covering covered

remained his body, so that freely by all it was seen:

by the citizens however with solicitude and sedulous devotion

was guarded, and by an innumerable people's

frequency was visited. Within which days when there was

heat very great and continuous pressure of people,

day and night him to behold and to touch striving;

nothing of corruption or stench from the sacred body

did exhale, but a most sweet odor felt from him

a very great multitude of people. Within the triduum however

aforesaid, more than twenty other sick, from diverse languors

were miraculously healed.

[50] When the Blessed man's sepulchre had been with stone covered,

before with cement everywhere it was closed,

a certain woman by name Blanca, Cured a certain afflicted with quinsy, having in the throat

quinsy, from which she could not be freed by the help

of physicians; the danger of nearby death fearing,

to the Blessed man's tomb she approached, accompanied by many

relatives and friends. Beholding however from the lower

part of the sepulchre a certain small opening under the stone,

her little daughter's strap through that opening

she introduced into the tomb, that it might touch the place of her infirmity

with the strap, which the holy man's body or

relics had touched. Deposited however within the sepulchre

the strap, saw and felt all who were present,

that to be drawn down it seemed: and when several together

upward it to draw they tried, manifestly they felt

that with violence some down it was drawn.

And when to the suffering woman it was urged by several,

that to blessed Jacobus she would dismiss the strap which

she was drawing; she said: This strap to nothing is worth to him,

but to me very necessary it is, since it has touched body

his. Repeating therefore the violence she draws it back, which

immediately to herself to the neck applying, with pain immediately ceasing,

before she came to her home, with the broken

swelling she was perfectly cured.

[51] At the time when the blessed Father's body remained buried,

so great was around him the people's multitude, with the body after 9 months sweetly even smelling, that

to be wrapped and arranged it could not as became. After nine

months however from his transit, suddenly what was omitted

had been they completed. Of faithful citizens therefore

testimony with themselves applied they opened the chest; and

the body, as they had decreed, with silken cloths they wrapped.

They felt however from the sacred body to come forth an odor

wonderful: the dust also which in the sepulchre near the body

his was found, wonderfully smelt; which devoutly

gathered, at the touch of that very dust, sick

several received the benefits of health.

[52] A certain youth, by name Miciolus, hearing

from many the holy man's miracles to be recited, to one detracting B. Jacobus's miracles his arm is contracted and healed, not only incredulous

was; but also of those very miracles to detract

he began. By God's nod immediately of motion and use of left

arm he was deprived, who of the holy man's virtues to speak

sinister words had presumed. With vexation therefore

providing understanding to hearing, to his heart he returned;

and B. Jacobus weeping miserably he invoked.

A vow made, that if He would free him, his tongue

henceforth against his miracles he would not loose, immediately

he received the benefits of health.

[53] A certain mature and devout man of Bologna,

having the habit of Penitence, by name Brother Guido,

for receiving the poor in the valley of S. Victor

of the Cesena diocese, by his merits an infant from pustules is freed, with his wife in a hospital himself

little poor he deputed. On a certain however morning to leave the house

wishing, a little girl, by a vile mother thrown out,

before the hospital's door he found: who calling his wife,

commanded that the abject girl for Christ's

love she should receive, and to her the mother's obsequy for

His reverence she should show. Who undoing the girl's

little cloths, with which she had been wrapped, found her

with swelling blisters and pustules over the whole body covered.

Hearing however the fame of B. Jacobus's miracles,

him they prayed faithfully, that the health of the little

poor girl by his merits he would obtain: in the night following

the girl was by the Blessed man's merits integrally freed.

When however the wife of the aforesaid devout man for sons since

a long time to bear had ceased, and now for the space of thirteen

years had altogether lacked milk, to nurse by herself

the girl she could not, who altogether milk lacked.

Seeking therefore in the aforesaid country if a woman

any they could find, who for Christ's love

would nurse the girl; since they themselves, because they were

poor, for the payment of a nurse the price did not have;

and none under this condition they found; altogether to

B. Jacobus that faithful man with faith and devotion

great betook himself, and to the nurse miraculously milk is supplied. praying that to his wife milk from the Lord

he would obtain, lest to the girl nourishment fail.

A vow made therefore to him, in the night following his wife

in her breasts itching she felt: which while she scratched and

pressed, suddenly by God's virtue milk burst forth: which

with daily augments multiplied, the little infant to nourish

sufficiently she could for all the time in which to be nursed

she was; though however the aforesaid woman was neither pregnant,

nor for a long time had been.

[54] A certain woman, by name Francesca, for seven

years was a leper, A leper is cleansed, of which years for four in a lepers'

hospital she had been separated. Approaching to

the sepulchre of B. Jacobus, with vow uttered fully freed

she was. Who seeing herself so perfectly cured,

with offering made immediately departed, nor to the Friars and people,

to the Lord's glory, as she ought, did she publish.

After a few days suddenly with grave passion seized she fell,

and altogether speech she lost. Who again

within herself with vow made to B. Jacobus, that if He would free

her from the aforesaid passions, she would visit again the sepulchre

his, and the miracle which she had hidden she would publish,

to fulness was freed; and approaching to the tomb

of the man of God all things in order she narrated. Of the first

however infirmity of hers there was witness a very great people's

multitude, who afterwards her saw perfectly cured.

in hand and foot, arm and leg, in the right

side contracted, so that on that side in no way

could he help himself; him to B. Jacobus's sepulchre

he led: where through immediately so fully cured he was, that

of the preceding infirmity no vestige remained.

[56] and a half-alive infant. A certain woman of Fighino of the Ravenna diocese,

by name Julia, bore a son half-alive, of motion

and sense lacking, except that only his lips

were moving: who when he was believed forthwith about to die,

immediately was baptized. When however for four days

so immobile he had remained, and neither milk indeed

took nor cried; his mother to blessed

Jacobus betook herself. With vow uttered however to him,

without delay or stay, was the boy to life and health

forthwith restored.

CHAPTER VII.

The deceased, by B. Jacobus's merits to life recalled: very many infirmities cured.

[57] When a certain Forlivian citizen, William

by name, Resuscitated a boy in a vat of water, had in his own house a wall

constructed, on account of which cause in the middle of his

house a vat with water he had placed; it happened a little

son of his, by name Sanctus, upon that vat

incautiously to play. And when to lean himself he wished to the water,

into it he fell and was suffocated. When had come

however to the water the workmen, and had found the boy

wholly in the water submerged; exclaiming, him

dead they extracted: the mother indeed of the boy, with

several neighbors running, and seeing him altogether

dead, B. Jacobus devoutly and faithfully invoked.

A wonderful matter, but by Him done who of life and death has

dominion. With the mother's prayer finished, and vow uttered to

B. Jacobus, the boy, who was dead, immediately from

the dead rose.

[58] Another certain boy of nearly two years,

by name Jacobus, near a certain river's ^a bank

left by his mother near Forli, and another in a river suffocated: who in the neighboring

garden was gathering herbs; with hands creeping and

with feet to the river he approached, and into it fell.

And when with head submerged downward, and with feet raised

upward, for a long space he had been drawn

by the water; by certain on the river's bank making the journey

raised from the water he was. With them shouting ran together

a multitude of people, who to a certain feast

going thence were making transit. And while by the feet

he had been raised that he might vomit out the water, that vomited out

dead he was found, having no sign at all

of life. For face he had most black:

and with his little body warmed at the fire, neither motion

nor sense in him appeared, but in him were all

the signs of death. And when his father and mother

and all standing by had seen, him to be truly

dead, him to B. Jacobus with many tears and

great confidence they devoted. Before Matins however,

through B. Jacobus's merits, omnipotent God him to life

and health restored: with pristine recovered color,

no vestige of any burden or weakness remained

in him.

[59] the lame are given gait, A certain Forlivian woman, by name Avenante,

who for thirty-two years on either side

was lame, approaching to the Blessed Father's tomb,

with prayer made, attained the benefit of full

health, so that rightly as the rest she walked.

[60] Another woman of Forlimpopoli, by name Imoldina,

for fifteen years was so deprived of strength

of limbs, that from the place where she sat or lay,

without the support of a stick or another person's help,

to rise she was unable: brought however in a vehicle

to his sepulchre, in the presence of many was immediately

perfectly cured.

[61] A certain Cremonese, by name Zaninus, who

for six years of the eyes' light totally deprived

had been, while he was at Ravenna, the blind in sight and had heard the fame

of B. Jacobus's miracles; with faith and devotion immediately

toward Forli the journey took, eyes of wax

and candles promising himself at his tomb to offer,

if sight to receive he might merit. And when at Forli

he had arrived, before to the blessed Father's

tomb he approached, all his sins he confessed

to a Priest. With Confession made immediately a little

to see he began; approaching indeed to the chest and offering

his vows, immediately he was illuminated integrally

and perfectly.

[62] two deaf in hearing: William of Ponte-Ronchi, of the Forlivian

diocese, who for four years had been deaf, with vow

made to B. Jacobus, free by his merits he received

hearing.

[63] A certain Bonaguirus of Mantua, who for years

six had lost hearing, with the blessed Father's sepulchre visited

continuously recovered hearing.

[64] A certain Priest at Ravenna, John

by name, made paralytic and in the whole body languid, two from paralysis are freed.

in sight and voice so weakened was, that

neither to read nor to sing he was able; besides also with arthritis

pains he was burdened. And when at the sepulchre

of B. Jacobus for one night with devotion and reverence

he had stayed overnight, freed he was fully from all the burdens

aforesaid.

[65] A certain one of ^b Valle-Amonis of the Faenza diocese,

by name Servatus, for ten years was paralytic,

within which by days and nights his head vehemently

and continuously he agitated. He approaching

to B. Jacobus's venerable sepulture, perfectly

was cured.

[66] another from epilepsy At Castrocaro a certain woman, Aemilia

by name, suffered epilepsy so horrible for years

seventeen, that within the prefixed years' number

regularly on every day three times she fell

at least, and by that passion was terribly shaken:

who coming to the blessed Father's sepulchre, with prayer

made, by his merits was perfectly healed.

[67] a certain one from deafness. A certain Florentine, by name Sentinus, dwelling

at Faenza, on a certain day while alone he was, felt

himself suddenly by some hand to be touched; and while himself

every way he turned, and no one to be present he beheld,

so was he stupefied with horror, that immediately the use

of speech he lost. And when nothing helped him the helps

of physicians, to B. Jacobus he devoted himself.

After fifty days from the horror aforesaid,

to his sepulchre he approached: and with brief there made

prayer, was loosed integrally the bond of his

tongue.

[68] A certain ship in the Adriatic sea, while from

distant, by B. Jacobus's merits the tempest is calmed. was so by tempest shaken, that

on account of greatest storms and strongest wind,

those who in it were not able by their own effort to help themselves,

of things and of life equally despaired. There was

however among them a certain Forlivian, by name Nicolatius,

who induced his companions, that all devoutly

B. Jacobus of Venice they should invoke: of which the rest

acquiescing in the counsel, Blessed they began to call

Jacobus, vowing themselves his sepulchre to visit,

if them from the danger he would free. With the prayer completed

and the vow uttered, immediately that tempest by B. Jacobus's

merits was calmed.

[69] Two young men of Forli, who were brothers

and commonly dwelt, had a horse very

dear to them, which on a certain morning in the stable

dead they found: to a horse life is restored, over which most vehemently

saddened, diligently they searched if of life

a sign they could find in it. And when all

coming without doubt it truly dead

judged, since of motion altogether deprived it was and of sense,

and was horribly swollen; a messenger for it was

directed, who the iron from the feet might remove,

and for skinning it would have it carried away.

Meanwhile one of the aforesaid brothers, by name Conus,

said to his brother: I believe, brother, if devoutly

we invoke B. Jacobus of Venice, through whom

the Lord so many and such great wonders works, that

God by his merits to us alive and healthy would restore

this horse. With him faithfully agreeing, a vow

both equally uttered, that his venerable sepulchre

with bare feet they would visit, and a wax horse

would offer, if the horse to them He would restore alive.

Then the other brother, by name Manfred, the dead

horse seizing by the ears, with faithful voice cried out

saying: Rise in the name of B. Jacobus. Immediately

however, with the servant of Christ's name invoked, with all vanishing

swelling, who had been dead was restored to

life, having no infirmity or weakness's

sign at all.

[70] Near Solarolo of the Faenza diocese, a certain

woman, to a mute speech is restored, by name Alberta, with supervening upon

her sudden passion, the use of tongue so totally

lost, that not the smallest word to express

she could. When indeed thus for several days she had endured,

and could not be helped in any way by medicine's help;

to the blessed Father Jacobus's suffrage she betook herself,

and with nods signaling as she could, asked to be led

to his venerable sepulchre. And when to the Friars' church

she had come at Forli, before

to the holy sepulture she approached, with the sign she could

humbly prostrating herself, she showed herself to have

great desire of confessing: and when by the Brother

a blessing to her had been given, to the sepulchre of B. Jacobus

she was led: and there with brief prayer rising, and

lit candles to his image offering, immediately

with a rupture and a certain sound within her throat made,

the name of B. Jacobus, with the people hearing, to invoke she began, with speech's

use and office to her plenarily restored.

[71] to a fallen one a broken neck is healed. When a certain Ferrarese, by name Bartholomew,

from a certain fall had a broken neck,

on account of which his head upon the unloosed neck

could not stand, but upon his breast fell;

placed in bed, he heard from several of the great

and many miracles, which divine virtue through the merits of B.

Jacobus of Venice in Forli was doing. He himself,

who his nearby death thought to be, with received

confidence in his virtue, to the same Father humbly

devoted himself, promising himself his sepulchre with bare

feet to visit, if him to pristine he should restore

health. Immediately however with the vow made he slept

a little; and immediately roused from sleep, he saw

a certain man of venerable aspect, in white clothed,

who from him to depart seemed, and found himself

plenarily freed.

[72] a certain one suffering from incurable disease, In the year besides one thousand four hundred

seventy-third, on the twelfth day of the month of August,

when great earthquakes had begun, and through several

days increasing had endured; the Cesenatese

(for greater among the Cities of Romagna from such kind

of earthquakes Cesena fear had invaded)

with houses left day and night places under the open sky they inhabited:

the Friars also of the Convent of Cesena, by the same

terror frightened, the garden for themselves had chosen as dormitory.

By which it happened, that a certain Brother, Sebastian

by name, of Faenza, Vicar of the Convent, when

he himself for many days with others in the garden had slept,

a certain infirmity from the air and ground's humidity

contracted: and so this infirmity prevailed,

that his side and thigh and other leg to him totally invalid

and dead were rendered. Wherefore when

much time for healing the sickness with which he was held

he had spent, and the physicians' remedies had failed,

and by no art could he be helped; to D.

Jacobus he turned, his help about to implore.

He had felt indeed his virtue before for many

years, in another infirmity which he had suffered: from which

when by his merits he had merited to be freed, in token of devout and

grateful mind on individual days the seven Psalms

penitential with the Litanies he said. He made therefore

in the month of December by his relatives

himself on horse to Forli to be carried. led to B. Jacobus's sepulchre he is healed, When however there at the altar

of B. Jacobus in Mass having confessed sacred Communion

he had received; under the same B. Jacobus's marble

sepulchre, which is supported by five columns,

he caused himself to be placed by the Brothers. He could not alone walk,

except by certain wooden supports, which they call ^d ferlas, supported. And when from earliest morning until

nearly the vespertine hour there he had remained,

by a certain pleasant sleep detained, he saw a certain

Brother of his Order (it was B. Jacobus) gently

with his hand the places of infirmity stroking, and saying

to him: Trust, son, because you shall be healed. Without

delay, awakened from sleep, he found himself healthy and uninjured,

as he had heard. Then forthwith of himself

from the place in which he had lain leaping out, in token of attained

health perfect so he was walking, as if never

he had suffered the infirmity: and he attested

with great voices, himself by B. Jacobus's gift gifted with health.

At this voice and at the magnitude of the miracle,

stirred was the universal city to praise of the blessed Father:

for very many had known him to have been detained by such

infirmity. The Forlivians began more readily

his suffrages not in vain to implore:

among whom also the daughter of Lord Julian Custodian of the citadel

of the Most Illustrious Count ^e Hieronymus, who with grave languor

and almost incurable detained, when with vow

she had vowed herself to B. Jacobus, was healed. In testimony

however of these things stands the City of Forli, and the letters

of the Lord Vicar of the Most Reverend Bishop ^f of Cesena.

[73] But other miracles, at the very most blessed

Father Jacobus's sepulchre or at his invocation

divinely done, the number and proof of miracles, wrought by his merits. which faithfully are proved, for

avoiding too great prolixity, lest the reader's mind

be burdened, in this little book we have judged not to write.

For besides all the miracles above said, within

twenty and eight months' term, from his transit,

were found miracles in number three hundred

thirty-eight: of which is diligent made

inquiry, and which by public hand with attestation

solemn in writings serially and expressly reduced

are. Many indeed others, which to writing committed

are not, in diverse parts of the world were cooperated,

which by faithful persons are reported:

in which is found, that omnipotent God

by the very Father's merits several other dead resuscitated,

many blind illuminated, to the deaf hearing restored,

the broken consolidated, the contracted erected,

paralytics, epileptics, fever-sufferers, and dropsical

cured; to many speech restored, the wounded

healed, the chained in prisons and in enemies'

hands placed by wonderful favor rescued, to afflicted

and desolate many true consolation showed.

In testimony indeed of his extraordinary sanctity,

Christ's piety and power to continue and multiply

miracles does not cease, to His name's glory

and honor, who with the Father and Holy Spirit lives

and reigns God forever and ever. Amen ^g.

ANNOTATIONS.

COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE

distributed into Lessons, by Apostolic authority published.

Jacobus the Venetian, of the Order of Preachers, at Forli in Romagna (B.)

Lect. I. Jacobus Salomonius the Venetian, of a most noble

family born, in the very flower of his entering age

orphaned of parents, under the discipline of his grandmother

made wonderful progress in letters and piety;

with the Evangelical counsel received, that naked the naked

Christ he might follow, with his patrimony to the poor

distributed, the Order of Preachers he chose, in which

for sixty-six years he most holily lived, with sole contempt

of pleasure and contention of virtue, to the holy Father

Dominic's exemplar wholly in himself to express

aspiring.

II. Humility he so kept, that all virtues

and miracles, which from divine liberality daily

he wrought, most diligently he hid. With charity to

God and to neighbors, especially the poor, so he burned,

that Father of the poor by common elogium was called. In

assiduous meditation of divine things, with such great soul's

pleasure was he suffused, that often into ecstasy rapt,

altogether immobile he remained. In his mouth not

except God and divine things were turned: hence very often that of Hieronymus

he employed, Happy is the tongue, which not except of

divine things knows to weave speech.

III. In bringing forth the name of Jesus most copiously he wept,

which also when of Christ's passion, and of the holy

Martyrs, and especially of S. Ursula and her Companions

was the discourse, he showed. The secrets of hearts

to him divinely revealed: with prophetic also spirit

was he gifted. In administering the sacrament of Penance,

often upon his shoulders sitting a dove, with beak

into his ears placed, sensibly appeared: and

in his own miseries, in weeping for the faults of other men,

from his eyes fountains of tears gushed.

The business of souls' salvation never to God's

busy minister was idle.

IV. Virginity perpetually unhurt he kept,

and his whole life from every stain of mortal sin immune

he led. In tolerance of evils most invincible:

for a most grave ulcer, his breast assiduously corroding,

so for four years he hid, that not even with the smallest

groan or sigh the most acerbic pain

did he betray: nor on this account anything of customary

his body's maceration did he remit: and now in

him, on account of decrepit age and assiduous sickness

half-dead, only Christ lived.

V. The day of his death by divine revelation he predicted;

with which arriving, immediately from the prior ulcer so he convalesced,

that not even a small vestige of it in him

further appeared. With Ecclesiastical Sacraments thereafter

fortified, while together with the rest of the Brothers in alternating

turns to God he psalmed, with eyes fixed on heaven,

from corporeal bonds his most glad soul to

the Above flew, in the year of salvation one thousand three hundred

fourteenth, of his age the eighty-third. For three days

his body, on account of the coming people's

concourse, unburied, breathed a wonderful odor,

with pious hands of the faithful particles of garments

plucking.

VI. Illustrious for the glory of miracles, and who alive

helped many, dead to the needy to profit did not

cease. Lepers he cleansed, to the deaf hearing, to the mute

speech, to the lame gait he restored; to those giving birth

he removed pains, ulcers of the nostrils he healed, the half-alive

to vigorous health he led back, the dead to life

he recalled, to all all things made of profuse beneficence

provided examples. At Rome of S. Sebastian's

temple with closed doors he penetrated. Wherefore into the

number of the Blessed transferred, his feast and office

by Clement VII first, and then by Julius III's

command among the Forlivians, afterwards by Paul V also

at Venice was instituted. Gregory the fifteenth

in the universal Order of Preachers wished it celebrated.

HYMN.

Jacobus the Venetian, of the Order of Preachers, at Forli in Romagna (B.)

Most happy Church, rejoice with new joy,

Through which the heavenly Court with new ray shines.

Jordan's river crosses Jacob with a double troop;

He bears Augustine's ray, and Dominic's lily.

Shines for the Preachers a star, through the world's pivot,

Refulgent in virtues, whose Order he adorns.

To Jacobus's little body the dove of the Holy Spirit,

And of graces a little vessel the Saviour sent from heaven.

A new joy is felt, new miracles come forth:

The bones give to the sick reward, all rejoice forever.

Be praise to the Father with the Son, with the Holy Paraclete together,

Whom Jacobus's confession may join us sparing the debt.

Amen.

ON B. VITALIS OF BASTIA,

HERMIT OF THE THIRD ORDER OF S. FRANCIS,

IN THE ASSISI DIOCESE OF UMBRIA.

YEAR MCCCCXCI.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Of his life, miracles, translation, and cult.

Vitalis, Hermit of the Third Order of S. Francis, at Assisi in Italy (B.)

G. H.

Bastia, a place in the territory and diocese

of Assisi, toward the city of Perugia,

was the fatherland of B. Vitalis, who

from this drew his cognomen. But at

Assisi having taken up the habit and rule

of the third order of S. Francis, Fatherland.

with all things left which he possessed,

in the year one thousand four hundred

seventieth withdrew to a hermitage, a thousand paces from

Assisi distant, where near the Church of B. Mary, called of Viola,

in a certain little chapel a solitary life for over twenty

years he led, Life holily passed. in harsh penance and the highest perfection.

His conversation was with God in prayer and

contemplation: his exercises were in fasts, in body's chastisements,

and in mortifications of his senses.

Furthermore from when as Hermit to the said place he migrated, never

is said to have kindled fire or light. A rigid follower of poverty,

he wore a tunic and habit pieced together

from cheap and rude cloth, and with bare always feet he walked.

Wine or relish or anything seasoned with salt

he did not taste. Lest he be conquered by sleep, he was wont his prominent

hair with wood placed above to interweave, and by other

ways to repel slumber. pious death in the year 1491. So filled with merits and virtues,

he died on the day XXXI of May of the year MCCCCXCI; and to the people

venerable, bright with miracles, and on a recently

made stone sepulchre placed, and in his little chapel buried:

where afterwards in his honor a Church was built,

since by God with many and various miracles his sanctity was

declared.

[2] Miracles. Of which a few from very many to the notice of posterity have come,

are these: A certain Scholastic memory and

speech had lost, who when his sacred relics he had visited,

both recovered. A boy deceased, by parents

to his sepulchre brought, and to his intercessions

commended, to life was recalled. A certain Tudertine,

condemned to death, when of B. Vitalis he had implored the patronage,

with prison and chains divinely opened he fled.

Finally for very many years possessed by demons,

and torn, at his tomb were cured. Wherefore by such great

operation of miracles excited the citizens, his body they elevated, translation of the body made in the year 1509.

which from the church in solitary place built, with

solemn pomp to the Cathedral church was translated,

on the day XXII of September, in the year above one thousand and five hundred

ninth, and deposited in a little chapel in the very servant

of God's honor dedicated, which the Chapel of S. Vitalis is called.

His image, both in the prior church, and in the Cathedral

to public veneration exposed is seen. The day however

of his birth in the city and diocese of Assisi under the rite of double

is celebrated XXXI of May, Ecclesiastical Office. and the feast of the translated body XXII

of September. On the very feast in his honor is instituted

through the city a solemn procession, where besides is a noble

and numerous Confraternity, S. Vitalis named.

[3] Writers about him Arturus du Monstier in the Franciscan Martyrology

reported him on the day XXV of November. We in this relation

have followed especially Ludovicus Jacobillus, who

at Foligno a place quite neighboring the Lives of the Saints and Blessed

of Umbria wrote. On the same day XXXI of May, reported

him Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, and

in another general Catalogue. Wadding the same celebrates in

his Annals at the year 1491 no. 42, who the body

into the city translated asserts in the year 1599. But since

Jacobillus that translation had reported in the first volume

at the year 1510, in the Additions and Corrections to the third

volume joined, where also he mentions Wadding, he ascribes

it to the year 1509; an easy however error could

have happened in the cipher in Wadding, a parochial church to him dedicated. that be written

the year 1599. Besides Jacobillus adds, from the Index

of castles and villas of the County of Assisi, that there is a village

under the title of S. Vitalis with a church dedicated to him,

in which are numbered one hundred and fifteen families.

Other authors, who treat of B. Vitalis, are cited very many

by said Jacobillus and Arturus, to whom we send the reader.

ON B. BAPTISTA DE VARANIS OF THE ORDER OF POOR SISTERS OF S. CLARE,

AT CAMERINO IN UMBRIA.

YEAR MDXXVII.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

Of her family, title and cult of Blessed, year and day of death, autographs of her Life and Supplement, and other Opuscules.

Baptista Verana, of the Order of poor Sisters of S. Clare, at Camerino in Umbria (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Leander Albertus in his description

of Italy p. 425, among the more noble

cities of Umbria Camerino

numbering, From the formerly ruling family at Camerino, long, says he, in it

held the Principate the illustrious

family of the Varani,

from which a man

of arms vigorous, and in counsels and prudence much

prevailing was, Gentilis (XVIII May in Annotations to the Translation

of S. Venantius letter Closed) to whom Rodulph the son

succeeded: who Gentilis-Pandulph and Gerard

(Camerinensian writers Berard call him) from his first

wife; Peter-Gentilis and John, from another

he begot. The second through the conspiracy of the first

brothers perished … which crime through the city

published, with the people's concourse Gentilis-Pandulph and

Gerard's children five (for Gerard himself a little

before at Tolentino had been killed) were slain, in the year after

Christ's birth MCCCCXXXIII. So into liberty herself

asserted the city, with father Julius-Caesar Varanus, but for years only ten she held it.

For the children left from John Varanus Rudolph and Julius-Caesar

pitying, with them honorably recalled herself

she submitted. Of these the Younger, when under Nicholas V and Sixtus IV

of the Pontifical troops the highest command he had held, to the Venetians

first, then to Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary

in the same office outstanding work performed, as much in the first

vigor of manly age useful to outsiders, as afterwards with the elder brother dead

to the citizens; praised by Sansovino, that the city

with many edifices he adorned and fortified, the temple of D.

Mary in the suburb he built, the Citizens with the best institutes,

graces, and benefits benevolent he restored; the castles

of Serra-vallis, Plorac, Lanciano, Beldilecto, S. Anatolia,

Agellus, and other places he renewed; a fishpond in

the most spacious plain along the river of Potentia he laid,

and with walls everywhere encircled.

[2] He so great and such, from Joanna Malatesta, of Sigismund

Prince of Rimini's daughter, and Joanna Malatesta, whom scarcely eight years old

to himself he had betrothed (whether for confirming his own power's cause

he did this, or led into hope of that city also's dominion

by right of marriage, if males should fail, sometime obtaining)

in process of time begot four sons, and a daughter Camilla,

born in the year MCCCCLVIII on the day IX of April, on whose

account these things we have touched; born Camilla, afterwards Baptista called however in the year MCCCCLXXXI

in Religion Baptista, to whom most writers in this

century the title of Blessed without scruple attribute. A cult

certainly suitable to this name those things prove, which in the year

MDCXXX published the most recent writer of the Life Matthaeus Pascuccius,

Presbyter of the Congregation of the Camerinensian Hospice,

treating of the Body's translation and honor in book 3 ch. 13.

For he narrates how on the thirtieth year from death, found

intact, Blessed everywhere called after the body's translation in the year 1593. and again in earth deposited; in the year then MDXCIII

dug up again, into bones indeed dissolved, but most pleasant

odor breathing; the tongue however (which most quickly to dissolve

in cadavers is wont) intact, succulent, and ruddy.

And the bones indeed in a new chest decently placed; the tongue

separately in its proper reliquary for veneration placed

he says; with consent doubtless of the Ordinary

Hieronymus de Bobus, or at least of his then at Rome dwelling

Vicars.

[3] Nor is there reason that we fear, by calling Blessed, and a place

to her here giving, to strike against the decrees of Urban VIII,

about the veneration of those not yet Canonized, the Relics adorned, in the year MDCXXV

making invalid whatever besides express Apostolic See's

license, or immemorial time's privilege,

had been by more recent of any authority's indulgence received

and by use introduced. If indeed those notwithstanding,

of that Pontiff once Secretary first, whom they call

of State, D. Scipio Savini, Archdeacon of Camerino,

both the Reliquary and the Sepulchre and Chest to be renewed

took care, so that they could be seen through crystals placed each.

So to have been the same in the year MDCXXXIX religiously visited by

the Pontifical family's chief Matrons narrates the same

Pascuccius. After these, on the same approaching for similar religious cause

D. Anna Colonna, married to D. Taddaeus the Pope's nephew

and by Princely matrons religiously visited, for honor and veneration's sake accompanied the Most Illustrious

Aemilius Alterius Bishop of Camerino: who

afterwards Pope Clement X and of the aforesaid conscious, nothing

however around them to be changed ordered; that deservedly should be said to proceed

all things from the Apostolic See's indulgence, at least tacit;

without which it would not be permitted to publish graces and favors at the invocation

or relics of B. Baptista wrought, and that with

express everywhere title of Blessed, just as also the Most Eminent

and Most Reverend D. James, of the title of S. Mary in

Aracoeli of the H. R. C. Presbyter Cardinal Franzonus,

Bishop of Camerino agreed, that, with things to be observed observed, and printed miracles,

the book be sent to the press whose title is, Vita della Beata

Battista Varani, Princess of Camerino, and Foundress

of the monastery of S. Clare. At Camerino in the Episcopal

Palace X April MDCLXXX. At Fermo however,

of the same Picene city as Camerino, very recently

it is written to me, that the Reliquary chest of Baptista

is now held within the altar, that lamps burn before it; Cult under Clement X augmented:

and frequent there hasten, not Camerinensians

only, but also outsiders: which make me suspect

the same Clement X, who from his singular toward

the Camerinensians affection their Patron S. Venantius

to the universal Church to be venerated commanded, of this Blessed

also the cult to have approved and augmented, although about that nothing certain I have yet learned.

[4] A little more fully these things had to be said, because for the Blessed

title to be attributed to Baptista, not only does not make

the prescription of memory of men preceding the time, since scarcely a hundred

years before Urban's decrees was she dead; but neither of present time

a little earlier use among the Franciscan writers

does, indeed not even among the Camerinensians. although the older from the title of Blessed abstained, For the first who

Her Life, which she herself had written, into a better (as

Pascuccius says) form reduced, Sister Euphrosyna

della Cornia, in the year MDLVII this to her prefixed title:

In the name of the most holy Trinity. Begins the life

of happy memory of the Illustrious Lady Baptista de Verano, of the Order

of S. Clare, who was daughter of the Illustrious Lord Julius de

Verano, once Lord of Camerino in Umbria: who

her virginity consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ

blessed, true her spouse: and who by her holy life

and good works merited with much familiarity of her spouse

Jesus Christ to enjoy, and from Him to receive many consolations

spiritual and revelations, especially of

the eight mental sorrows, which Jesus Christ bore living

in mortal flesh; and among other wonderful things

a certain epistle on her manner of living in her adversities,

dictated by the Lord Jesus Christ, by

her, with Christ dictating, with her own hand written.

The same almost title, with very few words changed or augmented

is to be read before the Life, in the year MDCXXIV at Macerata printed

where only is said Venerable Mother, Sister Baptista

Varani. [the same caution which Sister Euphrosyna uses

Gonzaga the General of the Franciscan Order in the year MDLXXXVII

in the work on the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, part 2 in the Province

of the March monastery 8 p. 217, has enough first

most Noble, then most Pious Sister to call.

Nor more does Wadding: for in the Annals at the year 1492

Gonzaga's words he describes: at the year however 1509 placing

an elegant summary of the life, only noble and pious Clarissa

he calls. The same to Wadding's abridger Harold simply

is called, holy, noble, and erudite Virgin; nowhere

absolutely Holy or Blessed Baptista, and is absent from the Franciscan Martyrology. as everywhere her

kind of others. More wonderful furthermore is, that Arturus a Monasterio,

neither in the Franciscan Martyrology, nor in the sacred

Gynaeceum, of Baptista made mention; otherwise by no means sparing in multiplying

his Order's Saints and Blessed, that to him unknown

rather than passed over she ought to seem.

[5] First, who used the title of Blessed, seems to have been

Bartholomaeus Cimarella: who to the Chronicles of the Minors, by Mark

of Lisbon composed and by him into Italian translated added part

4 printed at Venice in the year MDCXXI of which book 7 is prefixed

the Life spiritual and inflamed of Christ Jesus's bride, She began to be so called in this century,

B. Baptista Varana, Princess of Camerino, Nun

of the Order of S. Clare: and by this example seems to have happened, that in

an exemplar of the Camerinensian edition, which is in our possession, on the first

page of the book in old ink is found ascribed, B.

in this manner Veneranda Madre B. Suora Battista. After

Cimarella with the same license used is found in his History

of Camerino MS. Angelus Benigni, Canon of the Collegiate church

of S. Venantius, J. U. D. of Camerino, alleged by Ludovicus

Jacobillus, around the title of Blessed both following, in Volume I on

the Lives of Saints and Blessed of Umbria, printed under the year

MDCXLVII at VII April; and again in the year MDCLXI

in Volume III, where are supplied the defects of the prior volumes

p. 476. Of that Angelus these words are read in Pascuccius:

Nor ought I to be silent, what God through the fragile

sex deigned to work, by various writers. and especially through

B. Baptista de Varanis, who to the austerity of life

and Christian excellence, which the Order of S. Clare

professes, various institutions of regular observance and religious

perfection added. Then follow

other and other more recent ones, reported by Pascuccius in book 3 of the Life ch.

last, and by name Brother Cletus Calcagna, or some other, who

compiled the Catalogue of Saints and Blessed of the Franciscan

Religion in the Anconitan March; P. Charles Casalichius

of the Society of Jesus, in the book whose title is, Useful with sweet

mixed, printed at Naples under the year MDCLXXI Decade

5 Argutia 2; P. Antonius Gulielmus, in the book of Reflections

upon the mystery of the most holy Trinity, Discourse 29; and others

less known to us, and of whom are not alleged express

words, as of the prior; that less certain to us it is, whether equally

as those with the title of Blessed they affect Baptista.

[6] Besides that which I have exposed above religious veneration

of the sacred bones and tongue, even now incorrupt,

to no certain time fixed; is not found of any particular

day's observance among the Camertes, on which they with public cult yearly

might recall B. Baptista's memory: Day and year of death long uncertain, indeed uncertain long

to them was, on what day she had died. The aforementioned Jacobillus,

first the day undertook to determine, had noted VII April,

as I have said: which then from another's opinion in the Supplement

he judged to be retracted. Equally uncertain everywhere was

her death's year: which when the same Jacobillus I know not

by what author had numbered MD, which to Christians was Jubilee,

namely by Pope Alexander VI opened; followed presently he had

Lucas Wadding in the book on the writers of his Order,

under the year MDCL published. Nor afterwards, the eighth

of his Annals's volume composing himself, and the same in

epitome contracting Francis Harold, anything more explored

had they; since neither from tradition, and to April and the 16th century badly attributed, nor

from the writings of the monastery, anything was suggested for removing

the uncertainty; both however an epitome of the Life to the year MDIX

referred, although they had not yet seen the Brief of Julius II,

making it possible for the Firmian citizens in the year MDV, for

the foundation of a new monastery to take from Camerino Baptista de

Varanis, and Angela de Ottonibus. But if they had been able

to see the epistle of the same Blessed, of the Camerinensian

monastery now with the highest power of Abbess presiding,

given to Brother John of Fano in the year MDXXI, undoubtedly her life

they would have prolonged longer.

[7] At length came Camillus Lilius of Camerino, afterwards at Paris

dead with the title of Historiographer of the King of France, who

in part 2 of the Camerinensian History book 9 in Jacobillus in the Supplement

aforesaid thus speaks: she seemed to have become known from Camillus Lilius: On the last day of May MDXXIV,

with great fame of sanctity died Sister Baptista

de Varanis, to whom Duke John-Maria de Varanis,

her brother, made solemn obsequies, in mourning

together with all his court clothed: and true appeared,

what about her had been predicted, that no one else from

the family of the Varani so eternal acquired fame,

as acquired this religious Princess, of morals and life's

sanctity an immortal memory in the minds

of the Camerinensians having attained. Credible it seemed,

that among the writings of the monastery in vain other had sought, but also here he erred in the year.

among the very Varan house's ephemerides found had been by

Camillus. This year therefore, now to her I was ascribing;

moved besides by the authority of Angelus Benigni, by Pascuccius alleged

under the same cipher of the year 1524; although the same Pascuccius,

in alleging Camillus aforesaid's words, had written 1525, by typographic,

as I judged, error; when from the same author

of the Life collecting the Supplement, those of the beginnings of the Capuchins

reported by the Blessed I saw, which to the more certain knowledge of John

de Terra-nova and the Annals as well of the Franciscans

as of the Capuchins compared, necessarily evince, that even later

the Blessed died and beyond the year MDXXVI prolonged her Life.

Therefore the next year I took, that she earlier died

than her brother John Maria, the first and last

Duke of Camerino, by plague dead in the year MDXXVIII. The day

however last of May I retained, lest nothing to Camillus I should attribute;

whom I judge in assigning the year only to have erred, because

he did not certainly explored have the beginning of the Capuchins, whom

not long to have outlived the Blessed was proved otherwise.

[8] But the same Baptista's humility, which made that the heavenly

favors, the later deeds of the life lie hidden, to her through the last XXIII years of mortal

this life expended, lie hidden from us; with eternal silence also

would have pressed those, with which before she was heaped divinely,

now from the year of her age tenth, born (as she herself writes) in the year

MCCCCLVIII on the day IX of April; except in the year MCCCCLXXXVIII

so vehement upon her had fallen of diabolical temptations

a tempest, that after a horrendous of nearly three years' struggle,

at length she had been compelled the whole history of her former

life to her spiritual Father to write out; to the same, from whose fruitful

sermons she had had the beginning of her first toward the Lord's Passion

devotion; and who afterwards Vicar Provincial,

her into the Camerinensian monastery had brought: and finally

with Brother Peter de Moliano her Confessor dead, as Father

spiritual to the same had begun about six months before, the prior she herself divinely was compelled to write. when

she to him all her heart's secrets opened, in a prolix which from Italian

Latin we shall give writing, in the month of March of the year MCCCCXCI.

In this since the aforesaid Brother Peter de Moliano is much praised,

and indeed as if before half a year dead in nos. 35 and 48,

it is wonderful how not only Wadding, to many things distracted;

but also Pascuccius, to this one matter intent, so could

err; that they would say, that preacher, of whom

above, was the very Peter de Moliano, and at his command

written by the Blessed was that of which we treat,

the Life.

[9] This furthermore to be described, as Pascuccius says from

what at Camerino is found of autograph (Protocollon

we shall call it) took care P. Sebastian Grandi, of S. Philip

Neri's beloved disciple, It at Macerata first, published from the Camerinensian protocol, and of the Camerinensian Congregation

of the Oratory, which they call of the Hospice, founder

most praised, at the request of P. Juvenalis Ancina,

of the Roman Oratory Presbyter, afterwards Bishop of Saluzzo;

likewise of the Fathers of the Neapolitan Congregation,

of an exemplar to obtain desiring. With such

occasion using P. Dominicus Passinus of Camerino, of the aforesaid

P. Sebastian disciple, the same into chapters

nineteen divided, and to the Maceratensian press to be subjected

took care in the year MDCXXIV, which was from her

death almost the hundredth; and that under the auspices of him who then

was Bishop of Camerino, John Baptista Alterius,

German brother of his afterwards successor Aemilius, and finally

Pope, as we have said. And this edition word for word

even agrees, with the MS. which we have ecgraphum of Sister

Euphrosyna above praised; only in this excepted, that to this,

under the note of the day III of March ended, and by us from the MS. into Latin rendered. are missing those things which afterwards she wrote,

and are had published under the note of the day XIII. This however to me

gave occasion of suspecting, that a double Camerinensian autograph

is found, under double dating; of which one indeed

transcribed Euphrosyna, the other from the Blessed herself (when

to be sent to the spiritual Father, with her own hand again it perhaps had been rewritten)

with some at the end added augmented, Passinus

published. Therefore which I had ecgraphum MS. following,

into Latin myself I made it, in the last place adding those things which besides

in Passinus I had found. Why however then I changed my mind,

and another from elsewhere received version preferred to my own,

receive the cause.

[10] Bartholomaeus Cimarella, three, as at the beginning I said, years

before Passinus (which itself perhaps was hidden, to me certainly

long was unknown) at Venice had published Part four of the Chronicles

of the Order in Italian language, at Venice also from another autograph inserted into the Chronicles, and on the front of book 7

had placed the Life of B. Baptista Varana, written by

her herself to her Confessor, as the title has.

This my long-time Helper Conradus Janningus, then

giving work to Theology in the Roman College, finding there

in the Library, and by the most pleasant and devout argument's

sweetness captivated, at the same time also of his in the Italian language

progress about to make experience, into Latin he turned and transmitted

to Antwerp; since the book itself to send conveniently

he could not, nor quickly hoped to be found a venal

other exemplar. That version therefore I conferred with mine,

and with the Italian context which here I had: and I found

Cimarella's context in several places fuller than the other,

in phrase even not rarely diverse, marked by the day, not III, but

XX of March: nor could I judge other, than that the first indeed

writing by herself at Camerino had been kept

among her other little works; and Latin made by C. Janningus here is given. just as it transcribed Sister Euphrosyna

(for what is said into a better order to have

reduced it, nowhere appears) the second indeed, which was

to the spiritual Father to be sent, and during transcribing thus

had been augmented and changed, in that Convent had remained, where

that Father afterwards died, and where it then Cimarella

found. Therefore I judged the more weighty to be held the context,

which the Blessed with second cares had recognized, and whose from the prior

discrepancy could either in Annotations be indicated or with these signs

[ ] to the context applied, that may be signified what is so enclosed to be absent

from the first writing.

[11] There is added a supplement from Pascuccius, Would that to some of the Sisters or Confessors

of the monastery, after the Blessed's death, God had injected the mind

of completing the rest of the history of her life, after the dispelled clouds

of the aforementioned temptations doubtless not less holily,

indeed more holily passed, with virtue profiting through adversities!

But since this was not done, it remains only that of Pascuccius's

most recent labor we enjoy, for completing whatever sort of

Supplement, with the parerga omitted, by which his

argument he dilated into three books. The same Pascuccius to this his

lucubration three of the Blessed herself's opuscules subjoined, namely,

The mental Sorrows of O. L. Jesus Christ, devout Considerations

upon His Passion, and the Novena of the most blessed

Virgin our Lady to be made. Which all, and the tract on the internal sorrows of Christ: although most devout

are, only however the first, (because received divinely

it is, and itself I now have into Latin by me rendered)

to the Life I will add. Of the second himself doubts Pascuccius, whether by her

it was from B. Henry Suso's works compiled, or

indeed it is what at the beginning of her spiritual exercise to have received

herself she says from her Confessor, and which among hers always she kept,

mindful of the perceived thence fruit.

[12] In the Venetian edition of Cimarella, after the Life prenoted

follow other two tracts; other opuscules are indicated. of which (as Janningus

indicates) shorter is the one, embraces certain admonitions,

to Baptista still secular given, which she first to have written

says on papers (which she grieves) less decent and

abject, at Urbino, five months before her Profession,

and to have transcribed in the year MCCCCXCI

on the last of January, six months after the death of her glorious

Father Peter Moliani; and adds: and now nine

it is years since with the habit of S. Clare I clothed myself. The other

Tract, which is longer and last, contains an instruction

for attaining perfection, sent to a Religious Priest,

her spiritual son, to whom she intermixes various things

about her life and her efforts toward spiritual progress,

with no added to the things which she narrates note of time: and

to this Tract is subscribed in Italian, as before, I Sister

Euphrosyna della Cagna … rewrote this spiritual

life of the Blessed Sister Baptista Varana, at the

instance of a certain devout Religious and in Christ

Sister most dear in the year of the Lord MDLVIII. Many

things pertaining to the history of the Life from this last tract gathered

Pascuccius, which thence collected and in some Chapters

digested, in Latin we shall give in the Supplement of the Life: and

so the whole commentation about Baptista we shall complete. Otherwise

to the aforesaid her works could have numbered Cimarella,

mostly Latin and Vernacular Carmina (in either

language cultivated the Blessed was) and also several spiritual Epistles

to devout persons, which he himself here and there picks out

in the Life, and Wadding praises in the book on Writers.

For us to have indicated those things is enough, and at the same time to have signified to the reader,

that what words originally in Latin written are found in

the history of the Life, those from the rest from Italian translated will be found

by the very character to be distinguished. It pleases also in the margin to note

the diverse division of Chapters of the twin edition, under the letters

B and D, of either Authors Bartholomaeus and

Dominic to signify.

LIFE

By herself to the Spiritual Father written,

from the Italian printed of Bartholomaeus Cimarella,

Translator Conradus Janningus S. J.

Baptista Verana, of the Order of poor Sisters of S. Clare, at Camerino in Umbria (B.)

FROM THE ITALIAN AUTOGRAPH.

PROLOGUE.

Indicating the occasion and intention of this writing.

Most Reverend Father, in Christ

Jesus dearest, with these I signify to you, She professes that with vehement inspiration compelled,

how I have been turned wholly this

month of February in the highest anguishes,

and spiritual fight. The cause was a vehement

first of all and fervent inspiration, to which with my strength

I resisted, doubtful, was it or not a diabolical temptation,

of a proud and swollen spirit, to sift me

wishing, having received for this from God power, on account of

faults and iniquities by me committed. Hence destitute of all

human help and consolation, mourning

to the customary arms of prayer I turned, praying

to the most sweet Mother of God, with as much affection

and love as I could, that in such great darknesses and clouding of mind,

in which on account of my sins I caught myself,

at least that of light to me would be imparted, by which to know

might be permitted, was this divine will, or otherwise.

And to confess truth, my Father in Christ Jesus, with safe

conscience I can say, that wholly this month,

as if of mind impotent I have been, with the evil arisen from

the assiduous shouting, by which to load heaven I did not cease, that

in such struggle to me would be succoured. for somehow pacifying her soul, For this cause, that

both in dreams and in vigils, both in prayer and

in the recitation of the divine Office, some peace I might find;

today on the second Sunday of Lent ^a, the second-to-last

of February, after the sacred altar Synaxis

I have communicated, I have decreed altogether to obey and obey

the said inspiration: otherwise indeed in vain rest

I desire and seek. May God grant, that I have chosen

what He himself wishes! and I trust for His goodness and

grace, that I have chosen this rather than the opposite. Nonetheless

whether so it is, as I say, or otherwise; nothing to me

thence both in your, with the greatest her confusion, and in the divine sight remains,

except shame and confusion: and this reason

to obey the inspiration rather urges me,

than any other, although many, both useful, and necessary

to me have been proposed.

[2] The inspiration furthermore, my Father ^b in the Lord, this

is which makes me solicitous for attaining salvation. she will explain her spiritual life's beginning.

And that better both what I am about to say you may grasp,

and of how much weight what I have said you may judge; I will narrate

and manifest to your Reverence, what to no man

ever I have laid open, namely my spiritual life;

what its exordium, what progress

up to the present day has been. So I wish.

O my Father, until this hour I have stuttered with

your Paternity, when whether by writing or word

some indication I have given of that, which afflicts me of sorrow:

now however the time demands, that, although unwilling,

I bring forth what in the deepest bowels lie hidden; and the hidden

wound, which now from three ^c years has afflicted

this and sinful soul has eaten away, I open.

This is and has been the most sharp and pricking little knife,

which my heart transfixed; this was and is ^d

the lance of the powerful soldier Jesus, which up to the inmost recesses

of my heart penetrated. O my Father in the Lord,

let it not be grievous to you or tedious to lend ears to me.

For as another Magdalene, together also her present affliction, at the feet of the good Jesus

prostrate, so I to your benign and paternal feet

bowed, on the ground I lie, with face poured with tears,

with shame and confusion; humbly about to expose

the history of my most unhappy felicity. And

truly rightly to me I seem to be able to call it most unhappy

felicity; because of my sins, infidelity,

and ingratitude, into such gall, poison,

and bitterness for me has been turned. But,

beloved and dear my in Christ Jesus Father,

with adjuration I beg you, that with the eye of your enlightened

mind paternal and compassionate look upon,

consider, and weigh, if there is sorrow as my sorrow.

[3] Since I must speak of so great a matter

and so sublime, that is of God, and of divine things,

secretly from His goodness alone and grace wrought

in my soul; truly to me I seem all sense

to lose, and with great fear to narrate and to write

I undertake: and because I well know, all I, however

great I am, and that under the seal of Confession. and that in me is nothing other than falsity

and lying; with lamentable and intimate

heart's affection I invoke the benign blessed Lord

the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that He may deign to assist and be present to this my narration; for He Himself, I know, is the true and highest good, the Spirit Himself most truthful and most simple, without any admixture, and a lover of truth and purity; that He may give me grace, whereby I may be able without disguise to narrate to you simply, my Father, the particular gifts and benefits which from the most clement God Himself, the Father of mercies, I, unworthy, have received. And so my mind is disposed to do; disposed, I say, rather to diminish much, than to add even the least. I wish, moreover, to speak under the title and seal of confession ^e, and therefore I say: I confess to God almighty and to you, Father.

ANNOTATA.

a. In the year 1491, with Dominical letter B, Cycle of the moon 10, of the sun 16, Easter was celebrated on April 3; and accordingly Ash Wednesday fell on February 16.

but afterwards also it could have stirred religious scruple in those into whose hands it came, lest they presume to read through what was sealed with such a seal; until the fame of her sanctity began to be more widely spread, by the miracle of her tongue incorrupt after 69 years. The same may have happened both to the Camerino Protocol and to the transcript of Sister Euphrosyna: and thus there remained unknown for almost the whole 15th century the mighty works which God had wrought in His handmaid, and had willed to be written, to be brought forth into public light at a time appointed by Himself, for the solace of devout souls, walking along the way of divine love, marked with the bloody footsteps of our Redeemer.

CHAPTER I.

A childish vow concerning the weekly recollecting of Christ's Passion, and hence by degrees a greater devotion and exercises of piety.

[4] Know, sweet and most beloved Father mine in Jesus, that my whole spiritual life, Almost ten years old, she hears a sermon on the Passion, according to the grace of God, took its beginning and origin from you alone. It is certain to me that this discourse will move you to wonder, and perhaps appear incredible: for I know that all these things are hidden from you; nor indeed did I ever believe or take into my mind, that I should be compelled to manifest these things either to you or to any other. But hearken to the manner, and you will perceive that all things are possible to God. ^a I would have you persuade yourself, Father, that when you were last preaching at Camerino the word of God, I, as my own judgment indeed bears, was not yet born more than eight or ten years: but you will reckon this rightly, if you remember how long ago you preached here. I, on the ninth day of April, complete the year of our Lord ^b Jesus Christ; but since I was born ^c in the year 1458, subtract from the years 33 the number of those which from the last preaching made here by you have flowed past; what remains will indicate my age at that time. On Good Friday, I wished of my own accord to be present at your holy and profitable sermon; and I was present, not only (which is the grace of the Holy Spirit) attentive, but altogether abstracted from the senses, like a person hearing things he had never heard before; and those things which you said seemed then to me not already accomplished, but soon to be accomplished. Whence you well understand, of what age and of what purity and simplicity I was, who, when you had said that our Lord Jesus Christ was led to Herod, and was to be freed by him, if He would speak; I felt myself moved with such commiseration for Him, that with prayers I asked of God that it be granted, that that Jesus of mine should speak, and answer Herod, whereby He might escape the punishment of death. But when I heard that He had not willed to give an answer; there came upon me a great grief, whereby afterwards, that I might somewhat lighten my mind, I said in my heart, Why does He refuse to answer? This is a sign that of His own will He wishes to meet death. So it is, most Benign Jesus, so it is: but I did not understand. And these things I wished to be said, that you may understand how many years old I was, when this sweet Lord began to claim for Himself possession and a seat in this soul of mine, ungrateful to Him.

[5] At the end of your holy sermon you perorated with much affection, that you might lead the minds of the hearers to lamentation and a pious memory of the suffering Christ, and how meritorious it is to give one tear every Friday: entreating each one, that at least every Friday they should recall the most sacred Passion, and even draw forth one single little tear for love of it; affirming efficaciously that this one alone would be much more acceptable to God and more profitable to the soul than any other work, however good. This holy peroration, moreover, just as, by the power of the Holy Spirit working, it was efficaciously spoken by you; so by the same power acting, it was so tenaciously impressed upon and clung to my tender and childish heart, that I never afterwards laid aside the memory of it: and thus at length, having become greater in age, turning and turning over in my mind those holy words of yours, whereby, now somewhat grown, she binds herself by a vow, I bound myself to God by a vow of pouring forth every Friday one tear for love of the Passion of Christ: and hence my spiritual life followed, just as below in order is understood, of which for this cause I just now said that its beginning and origin is from you, that you may not wonder, but with me praise God, and let us give thanks to our Creator, from whom this and all good things proceed.

[6] Let us return to the matter. The said vow being made, I applied myself with all my strength to its observance, and she observes it most constantly, although with much difficulty. Toward the evening of Friday there was need of no small effort, before I could draw forth that little tear, because I found no manner of drawing it forth; so much did I shun spiritual things, that not only would I not read them, but I would not even endure to hear those who read them; and therefore I was greatly distressed, before that blessed little tear came forth. But when by a special grace of God one would flash from my eyes, do not think I waited (for my scant prudence) for a second; but hastily rising to my feet, I fled. Sometimes because of my liveliness I only laughed and engaged in other trifles, though with great labor, so that when I betook myself to expressing it, I could not delay so long until it was drawn forth: but then the following week all things went hard with me, reckoning that something untoward would on that account befall me. Among these things in Lent I would meet with Fr. Pacificus of Urbino, for the sake of expiating my sins; and these expiated, when he asked whether I was held by any vow, [I answered that I was not held: but reflecting a little upon myself and recalling this vow, I said, I was held and from time to time could not observe it; remaining however with fixed will to observe it always. And when he asked further what vow I had vowed; at first I could by no means bring into my mind to declare it, for this reason, because the thing was good, which I was ashamed to manifest: nevertheless] I manifested it at length, when he did not cease to insist. Then he: My daughter, by this vow I will by no means absolve you; nay rather I wish that you observe it: on this condition, however, that whenever you cannot observe it, provided you have done what is in you, you be bound by no sin.

[7] Thus bound by the vow, persevering for a long time, and with much, as I said, labor, by God's will, afterwards she adds the reading of the 15 mysteries of the Passion, I fell upon a certain meditation on the Passion, distinguished into fifteen parts, and made, as indeed it appeared, for the use of someone unskilled in meditating on such a subject. But when I had read through one of the fifteen articles, I was bidden to recite the Angelic Salutation: then I approached another, saying: I give You thanks, my Lord Jesus Christ, that You did this and that for me: and the rest drawn out at very great length. I took for myself and kept the book with this intention, that I might devoutly unfold the whole on my knees before the Crucified on Friday; which I also did for many years, taking care that, while reciting those fifteen Angelic Salutations assigned to their places, at each one I should draw forth one little tear: and, which is the grace of God, for the most part I poured forth more abundantly than my expectation. On a certain Friday until the eighth hour ^d of the night I had been occupied, when my Lord parent gave me leave to go to bed: and I was, every impediment being set aside. both because it was deep night and a long meditation, and because all the rest of the household had given themselves to rest, most grievously tempted to forgo that accustomed devotion: but I deliberated much, four times and more, inclining now to this, now to that side; God at length granting the victory, to discharge the accustomed task. If you knew, my Father in Christ Jesus, in how great a danger through that night I was, about one hour after I went to bed, you would be astonished: but if you should ask what it was, I will tell afterwards: only, lest in writing I be too prolix, I pass it over. But O blessed that creature, who, struck by whatever temptation, does not desist from things well begun! which, taught by experience, I declare: but for brevity's sake ^e let us return whence we departed.

[8] she then meditates the same daily, From the continued reading of the Passion I took such and so great a delight of mind, that I resolved not only to read it thenceforth, but also to meditate it; and not only on Friday, but on all days; and that for a space of time long enough, as God should inspire the one meditating, not as the paper should suggest. So great was the gift of devout tears, granted to me by God, that very often desiring to recite the Crown without tears [both by reason of those standing about, and the lack of a place fit for prayer] I could not finish it. And this lasted three years continuously, before I resolved to consecrate myself wholly to God, the cunning of the devil doing everything, that by whatever means it might draw me away from this use of tears, suggesting to those whose sight and intercourse I could not escape, because we dwelt together, that they should attribute my weeping now to worldly things, now to a mad affection for others. Which taunts and reproaches indeed burned my heart with grave grief, but by the grace of God I came off victrix of all, departing nothing from my purpose, and turning my back to the slanderers, and turning my mind to God, persevering in my devotion, I said: [Interpret as you please either well or ill my deed], I care not a whit. And thus in those three years I always did so, for the devotion of the Passion of my sweet Christ, [with which my heart overflowed.]

[9] she adds fasts, scourgings, and vigils, Friday I always spent fasting on bread and water: on the same day I had vowed to abstain from certain of my defects and sins; though I afterward through my malice violated the vow from time to time. Besides, on the same day very often I raged against my whole body with blows

I raged: moreover every night I rose from bed, that I might say the Crown; but if at any time through my negligence I had not risen, for one Crown I recited two. But now, since I have put on the Nun's habit, I do not rise, nor do anything good. Add, that in the aforesaid three years, on all the feast days of our Lord and of our Lady, I lived on bread and water alone: and there occurred from time to time a week, in which I would spend either three or two continuous days of fasting on bread and water: toward the end of prayer she is wont to be rapt into God. but now I never fast. But all these good works I exercised, not only that in the other life, but much more that in this I might be happy. It is indeed true, that when I had reached the end of that long, devout, and tearful prayer, and wished to separate myself from God and betake myself to other things, my soul often rapt enjoyed a singular tranquility and peace, which not even I myself could tell, of what kind it was. This I know, that for that small space during which it lasted (it was sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less than that in which the Angelic Salutation could be recited twice) the body was altogether without spirit, no otherwise than a corpse; but the soul dwelt in a place very tranquil and delightful. Therefore not seldom I said to God from my whole heart: My Lord, if You know that for the world's sake I am to be separated from You even by a nail's breadth, send me first a thousand calamities ^f and miseries: and I understood this in this manner: If You know that I shall lose this little, which I now enjoy, taste of sweetness. For I had no other access to God: for indeed, taking away that little, which was above said, time, all the rest was spent in dancing, singing, walking, vanities, and other youthful and worldly delights. ^g [So much in disgust were devout things to me, that they moved laughter scarcely begun to be read: and so much did I shun the Religious of either sex, that I scarcely endured to see them: I was wholly in my adornment and the reading of vain things.] While these three years flowed by I always carried about my mind imprisoned, nor, though I prayed much, could I obtain by my prayers, that it be claimed into full liberty. But hear, if you please, in what way at last I was freed. O God, how benign You are, who in a thousand ways always know how to help a soul, seriously applying itself to virtue! ^h

ANNOTATA.

a. Here first begins chapter 3 of the Macerata edition; but of the other edition, which we follow as the original, in the course of recopying, there have been added the preceding lines, as also the rest henceforth to be enclosed in [ ].

d. Although it is difficult to define at what time precisely this happened (since the Italians have no fixed beginning of the hours to be numbered, as have all the other nations, which they call Transmontane, all of which use astronomical hours, having a fixed beginning at midday and midnight) yet it can easily be conceived that this pertains to that part of the year in which the nights at Camerino, a city situated under the 41st degree of polar elevation, were longer. But the longest night there, on December 22, at the winter solstice, is of 15 hours: hence this there is then begun at the middle of 5 in the afternoon: and thus the 8th hour of night at Camerino would begin at the middle of our 12th hour. Again, since the same Italians begin their daily actions with respect to the rising of the sun, and end them after 16 hours from the same rising; it happens that at the time of the same winter solstice, when the sun rises for them at the 15th hour, the time of going to bed for them is the 7th hour of night. But as much as the days become longer and the nights shorter, the more does the 8th hour run on beyond midnight, and at length about the summer solstice it nearly coincides with the rising of the sun. So that, that the Blessed is said to have kept watch to one hour beyond midnight, before she was dismissed by her father; it would have been about the beginning of February, or after November 9, when the 7th Italian hour falls at midnight. He who wishes more on these things, let him see Theodosius Rubeus's "Universal Perpetual Horologe," published at Rome in the year 1660.

h. Here Pascuccius inserts fourteen documents concerning the love of God, which Fr. Petrus of Moliano sent to this his spiritual daughter through a letter, excerpted from the treatise of B. Vincent Ferrer on the Spiritual Life; as if already then she had committed herself to his direction, which I do not think.

CHAPTER II.

Long resisting her calling to Religion, at last she generously surrenders herself to Baptista.

B. 3 D. 6

[10] God disposing in His mercy, that I should break through from the darkness of the world to the true light, there came to Camerino that blessed soul, that trumpet of the Holy Spirit, Francis of Urbino preaching, Fr. Francis of Urbino, who now rests in peace, for the sake of preaching the Gospel; whose words and doctrine seemed to me to be thunders and lightnings, which he continually hurled against my soul: for all that Lent he set forth these words, full of fear, "Fear God, Fear God": which being repeated again and again, so great a fear of God invaded my mind; she conceives a great fear of God, so clear a knowledge of the offense and injury inflicted by me upon Him; so great a dread of the infernal flame; that, if I had not otherwise been taught that to displease God by despair is, beyond other sins, truly, truly, my Father in Christ Jesus, I should have despaired of mercy. That voice alone, which I just now mentioned, was all my hope and confidence in such anguish: since I never conferred on that matter with anyone; and she doubles her exercises of piety: but day and night I gave myself to bitter lamentations and tears, for the great contrition which I felt: and therefore I applied myself more strongly to prayer and meditation on the Passion of Christ. Indeed as soon as I recalled the same once a day, then I began to contemplate it twice, namely morning and evening: on Friday, however, I ate three or four little morsels of bread with a little water, or took absolutely nothing of refreshment: but at night, out of reverence for the Passion of Christ, not even lying down in bed, I slept very little indeed, and could truly say, "I sleep, and my heart watches."

[11] Meanwhile, continuing the devout and frequent zeal of praying because of the fear, which I mentioned above, I felt it again and again ^a whispered to me, that if I wished to escape the pains of hell, she feels herself called to Religion: of which so vehement a fear and dread had come upon me, I should enslave myself to Religion, sending away with a farewell worldly things; ^b but if, as hitherto, I clung to them with vain attachment, it would be that on account of them I should be condemned. Those voices seemed to me more bitter than gall; because the contrary disposition of my nature, on account of its malice uniquely desiring the wallowing-place and mire of the world, strongly resisted. while she resists this inspiration, I indeed alleged reasons, which could have persuaded me to it, very many; but in vain: for I could give assent to none, because of the inordinate affections, of which whoever wishes to come to serve God must be free.

[12] At length it pleased almighty God, the true and sole lover and redeemer of souls, that it should come into my mind, for another cause she writes to Francis; to write to the Father preacher a letter, as it were out of zeal for promoting another's salvation, not my own (although it was salutary not to others, but to me alone) and that secretly from all, and so without hope of receiving an answer: nor indeed do I remember to have entrusted to him even one little letter, which could throw a good or bad opinion about me, except this which I subjoined at the end, "Remember me in the tranquil elevation of your mind." And this I subjoined for this reason, that I believed any servant of God to experience that tranquility of mind at the end of his prayer, which I said above I had felt; which I shall suspect of him so much the more, the more like an angel than a man he appeared. Now he, God inspiring, gave an answer to me in a way and manner secret enough, as was expedient for avoiding scandal. And it was of this kind, That that business, of which I had written, would be his care publicly and privately, as far indeed as pertained to his office: then he subjoined these holy words: he answering unexpectedly that she conquer herself, I beseech you, my daughter, to strive to preserve your heart and body unspotted, by the example of St. Cecilia the Virgin, until God dispose of you; nor succumb to carnal and sensual affection, frequently invading your mind; but in all things generously conquer yourself. Farewell. Having read these things, from affliction I almost fell into a swoon of mind; for they seemed to me not words, but sharp arrows, hurled by God to pierce my heart. I well knew that I had neither spoken with nor ever seen him; nevertheless he seemed not to be ignorant of the captivity of my heart; and I said to God, when I came to myself: You, Lord, through the mouth of this servant of Yours speak to me: she begins generously to do this: for I know that the secrets of my heart are hidden from him; and nevertheless he says to me, Conquer yourself, if you wish to be perfectly free: thus, Lord, thus I resolve to do. Believe me, my Father; scarcely three or four times did I withhold my eyes from the pleasures and delights of the senses; and suddenly, from that affection I was free. For which reason I conceived such love toward Fr. Francis, that it might seem excessive; yet necessary, because worldly and deceitful love was thus turned into holy and spiritual love; and to him the highest benefit obligated me, received through his holy discourse.

D. 7.

[13] After I was freed from the servitude of Pharaoh, God urged more, yet she struggles against her calling, that His people should withdraw into the wilderness to sacrifice; that my soul, I say, should betake itself to holy Religion. But my perverse nature drawing out delays, I did not obey the divine voice; nay more and more obstinate, I found and brought forward one excuse after another, so that no one could snatch me from the powerful hands of my father, holding me so dear and bound fast, that even if I had wished, I should have despaired of being able to tear myself thence. O my God! O my God! What have You to do with this deceitful and sinful soul? what need had You of me, sweet Jesus, that You should so urgently require me? What fruit have I rendered to You, my Lord? But now I am silent, how many and how great things He set before me as promises, whereby from the powerful

hands of my father He might snatch me; for too great a sadness, my Father, overwhelms my heart, and therefore they cannot be related by me.

[14] Therefore the hardness and obstinacy of my heart being perceived, the most patient and most wise God determined to assail and soften it by another way; and to that end He took care, through the said preacher, until, desiring to feel something of that love with which the B. V. burned, on the day before the feast of the Virgin of the Annunciation, that a sermon should be made on divine love, with which the Virgin Mary burned, the Angel saluting her. And indeed, from the fervor with which he preached, you would have judged that in a single spark of that love, with which the Virgin overflowed, there was greater sweetness, than in all the pleasures of the flesh together. The sermon ended, before a certain altar, my knees placed on the ground, I made a vow to the Virgin Mary, that I would keep all my senses unspotted, until God should otherwise dispose of me; on this condition, however, that He would make me partaker of one little spark of that love, which she had experienced on the day of the Annunciation; and I persevered day and night praying for such things from my whole heart and desire. But since it was less fitting that a treasure so precious of divine love should be placed in an unclean vessel, such as was my soul; thus God willed to cleanse it.

[15] On Holy Saturday ^c the preacher, contrary to the custom and the pleasure of the Priests set over the church, and moved by an extraordinary sermon, they not wishing it by reason of the ceremonies, which on that day in the Cathedral church are made very prolix; resolved to preach, with few hearers present, since the custom did not so obtain; yet there was present she, for whose sake God willed the sermon to be made. He asked moreover pardon of each one, that on such a day he preached; alleging the inspiration of God, bidding him unburden his conscience by reason of the following day, on which Easter would be celebrated. Whence he resolved to speak of the impediments, which would make Communion unlawful; to renounce all vanity, and he discoursed many things; but to me the following ones. Whoever, he said, comes to Confession without the purpose of leaving those things, which are or supply matter of mortal sin, is forbidden to communicate. Then I, silent in my bosom: Alas for me! who almost always have received the Eucharist in such a manner, no will conceived or disposition applied of sending away my vanity ^d and folly, except perchance for the present! This evening, when I expiate my faults by Confession, of that sin especially I will accuse myself. And so I did. Fr. Oliverius, to whom I confessed, inquired, from what time I had received in that manner the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist. To whom I: Almost always. And he: Daughter, by no means will I permit, that tomorrow you refresh yourself with the Lord's body ^e: but go, seriously and diligently about to weigh your sins, Paschal Communion being for a while deferred, and return the following week, then I will receive your general Confession. As he bade, so I did, much though confused and affected with shame before the bystanders, that on the festal light of Easter I did not with others recline at the sacred table. But that is most true: He who does not give what he can, does not receive what he wishes: and this befell me then. But that Confession being made (I speak truly) I had, as is fitting, sincere contrition as it were all [f this Lent] by the grace of God: [nor however do I deny, that, for my lax conscience, furnished with scant light, I did not reckon any least matter a matter of conscience for me, as I would reckon now. But what I did not do then, after the general Confession being made, and the general Confession being made, ought afterward to have been done, as you will further understand: but let it suffice, that I did, as much as I knew was to be done.] It was the octave of Holy Saturday, when Fr. Oliverius in [g St. Peter's received my Confession, and offered the sacred Synaxis. Whence having departed I conferred with my pious Father Fr. Francis of Urbino, never before having spoken with me. Who asked me, whether I was meditating Religion? and I answered, No: and he seemed therefore from his countenance to be affected with grief, and said: Now you are made whole, sin no more, go in peace.] And so abounding in solace I returned home.

B. 4.

[16] When my soul, in the manner I have narrated, had been purged and cleansed, the divine goodness began to knock more strongly at the door of my heart: and its voices now glided not from afar, but resounded close at hand so clear and distinct, after a long struggle, that not seldom I stopped my ears with my hands, that I might less perceive them: but in vain, because they spoke not to the body, but to the soul. Hence when I came to pray, I rather seemed to gird myself for battle. Nor unjustly; for a contest more difficult than that is found none: yet not on that account did I ever forgo accustomed prayer. It happened sometimes, when more vehemently the benign Spirit of God urged me, and I no less strongly resisted Him urging, that He threatened me with these words: I am He, whom you desire: go, if you please, to the world; never there will you obtain the things desired. Consider, my dear Father, how my mind was not quieted by these things: I turned and turned over in my mind the sayings, nor did I find any rest, nor could I apply my mind to Religion. Nevertheless I repeated the prayer, and it was Friday: and there seemed to me (for I do not certainly affirm it) a certain other to stand near; when I felt so vehement a conflict of soul, now willing, at length she resolves to obey Him who calls. now unwilling, that from anguish the sweat broke out through my whole body: but then the free will, which had always remained mistress of itself and firm, of its own accord, not by force, acting as it were a judge, sitting in the chair and beholding the cruel contest, pronounced sentence against me: and I determined with the affection of my whole soul to serve God, so much so that, if for the sake of that thing martyrdom were to be undergone by me, I would have first and indeed most readily gone to this, than departed from the proposed sentence. At the same time a desire was infused into me of setting out to Urbino, in no other place going to have peace of mind. As therefore to a wearied and weakened body a soft with flowers and roses little bed is the greatest rest; so to my agitated mind it was the highest consolation, at length by assenting to give my conquered hands; and thenceforth with peace, tranquility, and spiritual joy perpetually I rejoiced.

ANNOTATA.

c. Conveniently these things could have happened in the year 1477, when the Virgin was completing the 19th year of her age, born April 9 of the year 1458, and Easter was celebrated on April 6, and accordingly the preceding feast of the Annunciation had fallen on the 3rd weekday after Passion Sunday. And this is confirmed from the 13 years, which below at no. 24 she says she endured a certain infirmity, given to her already converted for an ardent desire of suffering much: for from February of the year 1491 going back through 13 years, one comes to February of the year 1478, next following the said conversion.

body, which Baptista preserved all her life; it is not credible that that levity, of which longer continued she here rendered herself conscious, either approached the gravity of mortal sin, or afforded a proximate occasion of it. But neither is it credible that in subjecting the same to Confession and in eliciting a purpose of amendment the Virgin was so negligent, as to have made her Confessions invalid. What then? "It belongs to pious minds," says Gregory, "to apprehend a fault there, where there is no fault;" and the things which preachers sometimes hold out for moving great sinners, to apply to themselves, on account of the interior light, by which they know how to estimate even those things which to others seem most trifling.

e. Neither do I believe, that the prudent Confessor judged the Virgin to be altogether obliged to repeat her Confessions; from her present good disposition, however, he must have judged, that the delay imposed on Communion, and afterward the general Confession to be made, would conduce very much to her spiritual progress.

many in the Franciscan Order observe, from the 2nd weekday after the Sunday in Albis until Pentecost, of which mention is made among others in the Life of B. Felix the Capuchin, by Mathias of Salò on May 18, no. 63.

CHAPTER III.

The spiritual favors granted to the Virgin, now entirely converted.

[18] O my God, now I beseech You, that You be present to me, After she had thus surrendered herself, hereafter going to relate nothing other than Angelic and Divine things; and give grace, that with this stinking mouth and venomous tongue I may explain Your wonderful benefits, granted to wicked me to my confusion and shame: namely, that you, my Father, may not once, but a thousand times be able to say: Well have you deserved, daughter, both that and every evil of yours; what more could God have done, and did not do? And so in truth the matter is. For when I had thus wholly surrendered into the divine will; all the cataracts of heaven opened to me, and the abyss of divine mercy absorbed this sinful soul of mine. Then the benign God came to meet the prodigal son; God began to embrace her soul. then embracing him with paternal arms, sweetly and lovingly He pressed him; then the kiss of holy peace with His mouth not once and again, but many times He gave him. O my heart harder than rock! why are you not broken? what do you do? why do you draw delays? And the highest Goodness seemed, in pressing with His most holy and divine arms my adulterous and sinful soul, unable to be satisfied. Most holily I assert, very often I fled out of zeal for holy humility, and supplicated God, that He would not longer hold my soul constrained in His arms; otherwise I desisted from prayer: but in vain was flight, in vain was prayer applied; for there was no truce for me from His embrace, before it pleased His divine Majesty to grant them. It happened moreover not seldom that, prayer being finished, for no small space of time I wandered, before my soul was restored to itself. Most sweet and most pleasant were His voices to me, full of manna and honey, full of exultation, gladness, and joy, fit to soothe and to make burn with reciprocal love, a heart of stone: but I cannot write the whole, because the Prophet says: "In my heart I have hidden Your words, that I may not sin against You." and to address me interiorly, most sweetly, But truly I could use these words of the Canticles: "My soul melted, when the beloved spoke": and those of the Prophet: "How sweet to my jaws are Your words, above honey to my mouth, [And Your word is fiery exceedingly, and my sinful soul loved it.]" ^a And most clearly I understood, that in me were truly fulfilled

those words of the Prophet: "On whatever day the sinner shall be converted, I will no more remember his iniquities." And therefore I cast and submerged myself wholly into the ocean of love: * And thus at my peril I learned; That the beginning of wisdom, that is, the principle of the Savor of divine sweetness, is the fear of the Lord. And since according to the greatness of the fear, greater is the sense of divine love, which follows; this immense and greatest love existed in me, because that highest fear, by God's gift, existed.

[19] as a most beloved spouse, Then indeed I loosened the reins to my heart for loving, which for many years from fear of worldly honor I had with the bridle of discretion not without labor constrained; and I let it follow its own impulse ^b, and I reposed wholly in my most sweet spouse Christ Jesus the blessed; who so called me, because so He showed Himself in my soul and gave Himself wholly, and indeed sometimes under the form of a most benign father; sometimes with such familiarity, that He appeared a dear friend and companion; but for the most part like a most sweet spouse. But when God, as a spouse, enters a pilgrim soul, I believe, for the small experience I have, that sense of divine love to be such, that in this state of life a sweeter and more pleasant cannot be given. So that if that sense had lasted for me further, I would never have wished to be freed from this mortal body; since I seemed to enjoy eternal life and the heavenly paradise in this world. whence steeped in an almost heavenly joy, Nor would I believe, that anything else lay between paradise and that sweetness, [except as much as between the payment of an earnest and of the whole wages; and] that the one is certain and going to endure perpetually; the other uncertain and at any moment losable. But alas for me! not slight is this difference; nay greatest and infinite.

[20] she understands herself brought back to primitive innocence; Wherefore on this side seeing myself so tenderly loved; on that side knowing, that nothing resided in me except iniquity and sin; because in Him, where the sun of justice Christ Jesus lodges as a guest, all things are illumined with the clearest light; astonished from wonder vehemently, sometimes out of profound humility I thus addressed Him: O my Lord, if demons dare to blaspheme You, it is certain to me, that they will more boldly call You a lover of iniquity: I beg and beseech You, my Jesus, that You not, for love of me, allow Yourself to be called by that name. [I am nothing other than mere iniquity; and You deign me with such love? What other name then will they fasten on You, except that, Lover of iniquity?] To these things my sweet God, most benignly answering, said: Know, my daughter, that I am far from being a lover of iniquity: not in iniquity, but in innocence, in which both you were born and now live, I delight. Unskilled in words spiritual, I was wholly ignorant, what to this word, Innocence, of notion lay beneath: yet at length ^c finding such a word ^d, and a like benefit conferred on a certain soul by God, and that Christ delights in it, because it is from Him. I asked what these things meant: I will restore to you the first innocence. And certain handmaids devout to God declared that this sense lay beneath: I remit to you your sins, both as to all guilt, and as to all punishment. And so I understood, that up to that time the grace of the guilt and punishment of sins was done me. I supposed besides, that that innocence was a certain adornment of the soul: but I did not grasp, what to the aforesaid Christ subjoined: Just as I delight in My very self, and not in you; for that innocence of your soul I have infused, and it is Mine; and therefore not you, but Myself I love, in My very self I delight and rejoice. And by these things He declared to me copiously, in what manner He is held by the desire or love of no thing, except of His very self, as much in heaven as on earth: namely so much He loves created things, as He has placed of Himself in them: for no thing outside Him and without Him has anything lovable or delightful, whether you search through heaven or earth. And in this manner leaving me instructed, He took care that I not be lifted up by pride or vainglory. But this matter, my Father, is such, that the more about it I say, so much the more remains to be said: and after I had said all the things I can, with respect to those things which in fact happened, I should be thought to have said nothing. Let suffice the things which have been said, that you may manifestly know, in how great peace and tranquility, in how great sweetness and love, in how great confidence and familiarity, in the holy time of that spiritual jubilee, I lived; finding myself very often in divine colloquy, among the dear arms of the heavenly Spouse, in the conversation of the benign and eternal Father, in the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

[21] O time most pleasing, most serene, and most joyful, how into a tempestuous, dark, she laments herself cast down from that happy state, and gloomy one have you been turned for me! O incomprehensible peace, which surpassed every sense, how a deadly war have you become for me! O ineffable sweetness, in what manner into most bitter gall have you been changed for me! O love, which almost compelled me to die, what cruel hatred do you leave behind you! O friendship, O familiarity ^e, into how great discord and enmity have you been turned! O most sweet arms, how from a place so sublime into the depth of the pit have you permitted me to fall! Woe is me, how grievous is this fall! Now no wonder, my afflicted soul, if all your bones be broken. Now lament, now sigh, now though you cry out: "She sits in sadness, the mistress of the nations, and her tears are on her cheeks, before God and there is none to comfort her. All my friends have gone away together and have forsaken me desolate, all the day worn out with grief. Who therefore will give water to my head and to my eyes a fountain of tears? and I will weep my desolation, my widowhood, and my unhappiness." Alas for me! the crown of my head has fallen, and my eyes lead forth streams of waters, because I did not keep unspotted the divine love of my heavenly Spouse. Let heaven and earth weep over me: let all rational creatures weep over me: weep you, my most beloved Father, (if only a heart of stone be not yours) over your desolate daughter; and see, as I said, if there is sorrow as my sorrow, and if there is sorrow like to my sorrow. and to her spiritual Father. This was and is that hidden wound, which long ago burst my heart for me: now I uncover it to you, now I show it; because to conceal, to cover it longer I cannot: medicine apply, if you can; if you cannot, exhibit commiseration; it will be for relief. I desire patience, I desire tolerance; from sorrow I fail, [struck with grave fear and bitter bitterness; I am devoid of sense, not knowing what I say or do: wherefore if in any word I err, pardon; for this is my fixed sentence:] As much as she was in delights and glory, so much give to her torment and grief. But now let us pursue the begun narration: I will tell, as I promised, the series of my spiritual life, in what manner namely it has been carried out, up to the time of my affliction and desolation; and I will tell with the highest truth and simplicity, as hitherto I have told, by the grace of God.

B. 5, D. 10

[22] He, who is the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys, and is fed among the lilies, Christ leaves in her heart three lilies, wishing to leave manifest traces of His presence in my soul, adorned it with three flourishing and fragrant lilies. The first was a hatred of the world so grave, that if anyone had given me power of choosing what I wished, either to remain in the world an Empress with the certainty of obtaining salvation; or to withdraw to Religion with the danger of incurring damnation: I would have you believe me, Father mine in Christ Jesus, with the highest promptitude of spirit I would have chosen rather Religion, salvation doubtful; that is, a great hatred of the world, than the world with all its pomp and glory, the same secure: and this I would have chosen on account of the capital hatred, with which I pursued it; for the world no longer seemed to me, but that which it was, a temporal hell and an earnest of infernal punishments: and so it is, to the confusion of him, who will not confess it.

[23] The second lily was an interior lowliness of mind, by which sincerely from my whole heart I confessed and believed, an inmost humility, that a greater and more wicked sinner the earth did not bear than I, in no other wise to be saved than by the highest mercy of God; but to be damned, if of His justice account were taken: and thus I reputed myself the viler always, the more He heaped me with greater benefits. And this grace effected this, that I always held all His gifts as lent on credit, not as given as a portion: and so it is true, that truth is lovable, which thus instructed and taught me.

[24] The third lily finally was, an ardent desire of suffering, so that, if He Himself had wished to call me away into His paradise, having suffered no inconveniences and afflictions, an ardent desire of suffering. I would have refused to come: but I prayed and besought again and again with sweet affection, that if so great a benignity, as He had shown and showed me up to then in fact, proceeded from a sincere heart, He would set this sign for me, namely that I be clothed with the same garment, which His most beloved son was clad with; that is, that it be granted me to suffer adversities in this world. But behold so liberal a promise of them was made to me, that four times and more I was filled with them to satiety. At that time straightway I fell into a sickness, this very one, of which, thirteen years having now passed, I have never been cured; and I bore it with such great pleasure, that you could scarcely believe; except only in this last year, in which I seemed to myself not to be able to bear it longer; though at first with full resignation I was willingly sick: but this is not in me, but in the Lord the boasting, since from Him is my patience. And while, as another Job, with a most grievous and mortal infirmity of body I was afflicted, by singing psalms I gave thanks to God from my whole heart.

[25] Taught to meditate the life of Christ, Now the seven months being finished, in which at any moment I seemed about to breathe out my soul, I rose from bed; and Fr. Gregory ^f, who now triumphs glorious in heaven if it is true, what is said, instructed and taught me the manner of meditating the life of Christ, while reciting the crown of the Blessed Virgin, sufficient for filling three hours. Meanwhile I abounded with such great solace and sweetness, that to make an end I scarcely or not even scarcely could, all things being for me turned into honey and sugar and most sweet manna ^g. But indeed while contemplating the Transfiguration of Christ our Saviour, things so sublime and heavenly were promised to me,

that I never hear the Transfiguration even named, but I am wholly suffused with a most sweet pleasure of mind; thus carrying out what the Prophet prescribes with these words: "Taste and see." For when I tasted, I was so kindled with desire of seeing Him, that all my prayer was nothing other than a perpetual languor of one loving and desiring to behold His most serene and most glorious countenance: whether I looked at herbs, flowers, roses on the earth, they provoked me to contemplate the beauty of the Lord; and thinking on the Transfiguration, or upward I lifted my eyes to heaven, marked with stars, I wholly failed with languor, saying: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of His hands." O my sweet Jesus, if with such great elegance shine the works of Your hands, how greatly will resplend Your radiant face? Show me Yourself, show me Yourself, show me Yourself, most benign Lord: why do You let me thus languish? You alone are my life and my hope, alone the love of my heart and soul; [why do You hide me, why do You conceal from me Your most holy face]? she is kindled with desire of seeing Him: This was that time, in which I no longer fled Him, as before; but eagerly followed, in the odor of His ointments; saying to Him: "Better are Your breasts than wine, and the odor of Your garments above all aromatics; would that You would kiss me with the kiss of Your mouth ^h!"

[26] and having long prayed for this, When with such desire I had been much agitated and had suffered ⁱ, He thus rendered me partaker of my vows, that, while I asked to see His glorious face, He turned His back to me. Nevertheless sometimes saying to myself: This Jesus of mine grants me all things obliquely: truly then obliquely was I heard and understood; but directly was I rendered partaker of my vows: for I remained from then in every way pacified and possessed of my desire. Now hear, if you please, in what manner He for His infinite goodness and mercy showed Himself to be seen by me. Devoting myself to prayer sometimes, from signs I perceived not doubtful, that He Himself was present to my soul; and when He was preparing departure thence, He said to me: If you desire to see Me, look back. I looked back: and like a man, who departing from another, turns his back to him and pursues his own journey, He fled from my soul. As soon as I began to see Him, He was distant from me more than six paces; and He walked straightway through a hall long enough, at the end of which was a little door, such as is proper to chambers: and I saw Him as long, until on account of His tall stature of body with bent head, He passed out through the aforesaid little door; [nor afterward either He, or the hall, at length she follows in a wonderful manner, or the little door appeared anywhere to my eyes: and thus I saw the back, not the face of Him.] He was clad in a most white garment, and ankle-length, which surpassed whatever of whiteness this world has; and with a border, adorned with golden letters of the thickness of one finger, He swept the ground. The letters however I could not read, both because they were far off, and because He Himself, although modestly walking, nowhere stopped. About the loins He was most slender, girded with a girdle of solid gold, two fingers wide. With head and neck above all men He was eminent: His hair seemed gilded, hanging down to the girdle; gently curled: the top of His head, however, it was not permitted to see so accurately, that I could ascertain, whether He wore a crown or a diadem, or a circlet of roses and flowers woven together. He Himself did not wish, that these things become known to me: and I believe His head was adorned with so neat an ornament, that I was not worthy to take it in with my eyes. But the golden and copious hair, hanging down through broad and well-proportioned shoulders, the most white and most beautiful garment increasing the comeliness, [so greatly commended Him, that beholding I was rapt into admiration and stupor].

[27] In those two and a half years, in which meditating better things I remained in the world, with many graces and gifts from God I was prevented; of which here mention I do not make, judging it better of many few, than of few many things to say; and many other favors throughout the two years. because that conduces to my greater peace. Know however most certainly, my Father in the Lord, that in that most tranquil time there became known to me all, which I have suffered, straits and afflictions, just as manifestly it will appear below, that I might prudently and patiently bear them. But alas, wretched and unhappy me, who neither the one, nor the other in fact fulfilled! because I governed myself no otherwise than a sheep: and therefore I cannot but lament my slothfulness, saying: O all you, who pass by along the way of divine love, attend and see, if there is sorrow like to my sorrow. That unhappy soul, which was the spouse and secretary of the most high God, and lay in saffron, embraced the dung of the most stinking devil.

B. 6, D. 11

[28] When therefore the fullness of time came (because all things have a time) in which I was afflicted and tested, whether I were gold or lead; tested by infirmity, Prepared for much tolerance, tested by temptations, threats, prison, by all things, God helping, I repaid to him his own coin, that is, I despised blandishments, and sickness and threats with desire I embraced ^k. God willed at length wholly to free me, just as He had promised, from the Egyptian servitude of the world, and from the hands of the powerful Pharaoh, who for two and a half years had a hardened heart, and who with his own mouth said, that if I did not fear the scourges of God, he would never permit me to enter Religion. and the father's assent being at length obtained, Therefore having despoiled Egypt, laden, I say, with treasures and spiritual graces, with dry feet, that is, without even the least labor or passion, I passed over the Red Sea, the inflated, I say, and swollen pomp and principality of the world: which red things indeed appear, that is, the eyes they delight, as the red color is wont; but in truth they are not beautiful, because besides smoke and fire kindled from straw, which quickly perishes, they have nothing. And when turning myself I looked back behind, I saw submerged in that very sea with his whole army Pharaoh; that is, the demon with all his snares, vices, and sins. And in this manner I was carried over into the desert of holy Religion, into the sacred monastery ^l of Urbino, you witnessing, you present: where in truth, my Father in the Lord, I was filled with so great joy, she enters the monastery of Urbino. when I saw myself escaped from the world and its snares, that with Mary the Prophetess I could deservedly say: "Let us sing to the Lord gloriously, for He is glorified, the horse and the rider He has cast into the sea." And it might indeed be, that some other should desert the world with as great pleasure and delight, as I: but with greater, I cannot believe. Nor wonder, that I have brought into comparison the dignity and figure of the Jewish people, with so many gifts of God and benefits heaped: for there does not occur to me, to whom I might rather compare myself; both on account of the infinite benefits, which from God I have received; and especially on account of my infinite hardness and ingratitude.

ANNOTATA.

d. "In a certain book."

"And whatever I thought of did not present itself as past, but as if I were corporeally present and assisting at all the words and offices of the glorious Virgin and the boy Jesus, whom I seemed to accompany on their laborious journeys."

k. Explaining the matter Pascuccius says, that the father of the Blessed, through the death of Nicholas, his nephew by an elder brother, made head and lord of the whole House of Varano, likewise leader of the Venetian forces, and looking to nothing other than the increase of his state, wished by all means to compel his daughter to a marriage, by which he might augment his affairs by some powerful alliance.

"This monastery was chosen, because there some time before Baptista Malatesta had taken the Nun's habit, the former wife of Guido of Montefeltro, afterwards named Sister Hieronyma, by the name of doctrine most celebrated among the writers of that age: and there also had lived Elisabeth, the former wife of Petrus-Gentilis Varani, who after the slaying of her husband perpetrated among the Recanati, made religious at Foligno, and brought into suspicion before Pope Nicholas V, that under the pretext of leading a monastic life at Foligno she intended to bring back the city to the dominion of the Trinci, kinsmen of her former husband; and therefore ordered to migrate; by the intervention of certain Italian Princes she had obtained the monastery of Monte-Luce, with twenty-one Religious who had followed her from Foligno: but the seven years there being spent, by the command of Calixtus III, at the prayers of the Duke of Urbino she had passed to Urbino, and there had erected the aforesaid monastery from the foundations, and with great probity had governed it. But then there were living there Francisca Varana, the daughter of that same Elisabeth, likewise her cousin Euphrasia Chiavelli of Fabriano, Emerentiana Colonna, Clara Cappelli, Bernardina Baglioni, and other most noble Virgins. Jacobillus writes Camilla added to them in the year 1481, November 14, which he could have had from the register of the Urbino monastery."

* D. 12

CHAPTER IV.

The novitiate at Urbino completed, Baptista professed returns to Camerino: in both places she suffers certain divine things, here also she beholds St. Clare.

D. 12

[28] And thus far indeed concerning my spiritual life led in the world, Having put on the habit, where through the intercession and merits of the most glorious Virgin Mary, asked this by me, I felt a single spark of divine love. And truly it was only a single one, compared to that fire of essential love, eternally seething; [yet which so much and in such a manner blazed, that with my bosom either to carry or to hold more I could not nor would, and very often and again I cried out: Nothing more, Lord, nothing more.] Now further I will pursue the things which happened to me clothed in the sacred habit of St. Francis. As in the material desert is found the song of birds, the beauty of flowers, the secret lairs of animals, as Ubertinus says; so in the sacred monastery of Urbino I found the most sweet song of devout prayers, the beauty of good examples, the secret lairs of divine graces and heavenly gifts. And moved by the Holy Spirit and provoked, I blazed with a vehement desire of penetrating to the interior of the desert, that is, to the most sacred pains of the inmost heart of my most sweet Jesus. At that time from my heart I sent away a farewell to all the sweetness of heavenly manna; not that I loathed it, she renounces all spiritual taste like that elect and equally ungrateful Jewish people; but because out of holy humility I thought myself unworthy of it, and feared lest it be reckoned to my debt rather than to my capital. But I prayed

from a pure and sincere heart to God, that with the most bitter and venomous foods of His most holy and myrrhed Passion He would nourish, satiate, and fill me; for those alone my soul desired and thirsted, those alone it coveted and burned for; and it could with the beloved Spouse in the Canticles say: "A bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me, He shall abide between my breasts."

[29] Then I determined, whatever time was spent on prayer, wishing to enter into the heart of the patience of Jesus, to transfer to the meditation of Christ's Passion, and not wishing to apply my thought to anything else, with the vigor and impulse of my whole mind into the most bitter sea of pains, with which the heart of Jesus Christ abounded, I was loosed, eager to immerse myself in them if I could. Nor ought it to seem a wonder, that a desire came upon me of entering Your heart, most sweet Jesus: since there long ago You had shown my name written in golden ^a letters. [O how beautifully there appeared in Your reddening heart the golden letters, capital, ancient, expressing these things:] I love you, Camilla! ^b And this therefore You exhibited to me, good Jesus, in which she had once read herself written, because I greatly wondered, that You pursued me with such great love, and that in excusing Yourself You said, You could not do otherwise, because You bore me written in Your heart: and lifting on high Your glorious arm, You bade me read the above-recited words. O my soul, why are you not comforted a little, mindful of so great a good and love toward you of your most beloved Jesus? But you will say, I know, I cannot; since the memory of those things so far is from corroborating me, that it is for most sharp arrows, which pierce my heart; and so I cannot be satiated with lamenting: O all you, who pass by along the way of divine love, attend and see, if there is sorrow as my sorrow.

B. 7.

[30] Now indeed, that we may return to our purpose; when with such desire in prayer and meditation persevering in those two years, and at length she finds it bitter beyond measure, in which before I returned to Camerino I remained at Urbino, by the admirable grace of the Holy Spirit I was introduced into the most sacred bridal chamber of the myrrhed heart of Jesus Christ, the true and only most bitter sea, to all intellect both angelic and human unsailable; and in that sea very often I would have been submerged, if the powerful hand of God had not helped me. For much more grievously could I bear the harshness of my sorrows, than the sweetness of love itself; saying: No more, no more, Lord Jesus Christ, I cannot any more; I am submerged, because this sea lacks bound and bottom. Then to me God, not paradise, appeared, as at first; but a cruel hell: and indeed out of holy simplicity frequently I called Him by no other name than of Hell, because I thought nothing else fitting to Him. But for the present concerning this matter I say nothing more; it will be said elsewhere: this however I will not omit, that although there were participated to me so great mental pains of His, as my soul could tolerate and hold [by the gift of the Holy Spirit]; nevertheless with respect to those, which were, I understood mine so to be related, as a little grain of sand, and if anything smaller than that can be conceived, with respect to heaven and the whole earth.

[31] In that time ^c, in which at Urbino in the sacred monastery I lived, she herself well prepared for it by the desire of suffering. my soul, the sun of divine justice communicating its heavenly influx, in a wonderful manner flourished with diverse flowers and desires pleasing to God, so that it could truly say: "Flowers have appeared in our land": yet above all there sprang up more gladly and flourished that flourishing lily, which already from the beginning of my conversion had been planted in the barren earth of my soul; that inflamed desire, I say, of suffering adversities. That above all the rest in this most sacred time by the royal hand of the true Ahasuerus Christ Jesus the blessed was cultivated, and with the water of His mental pains irrigated, and largely watered, so that although very often I was near to death, yet I frequently prayed God in this manner: O my Lord, when will You lead me into those fat pastures and pleasant gardens of pains, where Your elect and beloved sheep grow fat? O my Lord, much You defer to confer the things, which You promised! act, shortly, suddenly: my Lord, further patience fails me: on account of my many sins let it not repent You to pay Your promises; deprive me not, Lord, of so great a good.

[32] After these things there followed the calamity of my Profession, disturbing and shaking the whole Religion Lords; There began therefore about the time of her Profession a tribulation, which what event it had to write for a certain reason I omit: but I do not wish anything else to be thought, than that I did not wish to write it.] This I do not wish to keep silent. Namely that the earth was indeed disturbed by reason of my Profession; but in the heavens the rejoicing Angels celebrated a festal day with the highest gladness; and this hold as most certain, most beloved my [in Christ Jesus] Father: for not from report this I assert, but from clear knowledge; and would that as certainly all sinners obtained heaven, as that is true! Nor however do I bring my mind to believe, that heaven so exulted for my sake; but rather for the sake of this monastery, going to receive much profit thenceforth, on account of the disturbance moved for her sake, both on account of my profession, and on account of the glorious and angelic prey, which snatched from the world, in that same sacred place ought to abide. And so it was just, that the demon should sow on earth the tares of disturbances, whereby in the heavens the Angels should exult. These things I would have noted, namely that in that year of my tribulation you were elected Vicar ^e, which office long before you had not borne, nor afterward did you discharge any more; God so willing, that, just as through His goodness and grace you had been the cause and beginning of my salvation, so to the middle and end also you should labor: to the middle, I say, when with desolation and sickness of mind I was afflicted; but to the end of those things, which from September to this very time I both have done and do. [And indeed it was fitting that you above the rest should then be Vicar, since he to whom she writes was Vicar, as one who had been the cause of so great a good, that you should be partaker also of so great troubles and disturbances, as throughout the whole Province among the Brothers and Sisters, and among seculars both of lower and of first rank, existed. Hence certainly and evidently I know, that as from troubles you were not absent, so God willed to yield to you a part of all the goods, which are done and to be done in this sacred monastery. And indeed although you greatly strove, that in the time of your Vicariate the place be not accepted, God afterward willing you changed your sentence:] and it was likewise necessary, that you should be the one, and not another, by whom the place at Camerino received, who by your authority and presence should enclose us here, and give a beginning to this sacred monastery. [O! flee though Camerino, flee as you please; this is certain, that in no part of the world has so much fruit and good been done by you, as at Camerino. Hence the devil, by no means ignorant, how greatly you have there hindered him, makes you hate and flee that place. And these few things with filial confidence I have said.]

B. 8.

[33] After I through the obedience of Your Reverence, from the Apostolic authority granted to you, and she herself was enclosed there. together with other venerable Mothers into that monastery Majesty, that I should return hither; another sign from God for my certainty and consolation I obtained, more noble and manifest, namely this. On the second Friday from our entrance into this monastery ^g Sister Constantia, well known to you, at the fire was sitting perchance, while I was sewing there; when she sang ^h a hymn, whose beginning is this: "Anima benedetta dall' alto Creatore," etc., and I answered her singing and by turns between us we pursued it, Rapt into ecstasy, until there was come to those words, "Risguarda quelle mani, risguarda quelli piedi, risguarda quel costato." Then indeed I could no more: from anguish of heart I sank back into the bosom of the Sister, closing my side, and thinking it nothing other, than the usual bodily ailment that often otherwise befell me, when in truth it was then spiritual: for my soul was rapt into that mystery of the afflicted mother, embracing her dead son with maternal embrace. I perceived present the sonorous, hoarse, and tearful voices of that most holy Mother: I heard the most loving and most mournful disciple Magdalen, with a clear voice crying out, My Master! There beat upon my ears the bitter lament of the beloved disciple John, with a shrill and subdued sound saying; she is present at the mystery of the deposition of Christ from the Cross, My Father, my brother and my master: and in like manner the rest of the beloved Marys lamented. That state of mine lasted until the first hour of night and more, begun a little before Compline; and would have lasted the whole night, had I not myself done violence to myself, that I might recall my mind, and lighten for the Sisters the sense of grief. For as long as I was so affected, sometimes I heard the Sisters most clearly, sometimes less clearly; but when the voices of the glorious Virgin Mary were intent, nothing at all did I perceive of this world, as if the soul were exiled from the body; and from time to time tears burst forth from my eyes, when I felt the things that were done and said about me. Returned at length into my very self, so wearied and afflicted I found myself, my face so changed and transfigured my body, that for fifteen days following I seemed to have come forth from a sepulcher.

[34] and by it she understands her migration to have pleased God. Now before that happened, either scant or no memory had I of that mystery, namely of the Virgin Mary, holding the corpse of her most beloved son constrained in her arms; but my whole mind tended either to Him affixed to the cross, or to the Lord praying in the garden; and this among all the mysteries held the first place. But from that time I was always most devout to that mystery, leaving in me this true sign of itself, that for more than two years I could not behold ladders, hammers, nails, pincers; although in the time of my rapture, which indeed I remember, I did not see such instruments. And this is that sign, which I say, was given to me, that I might know, that my return into this place pleased God; and therefore, O all you, who pass by along the way of divine love, attend and see, if there is sorrow as my sorrow. * Just as the Apostle says, that the Hebrew People was baptized in water and fire ⁱ: so my soul wished first to be baptized with the water of tears of contrition and devotion, then with the divine and seraphic fire. Now you will understand, in what manner God willed to baptize it with fire and purge it from faults, contracted in the time of tribulation, that, what by grace

belongs to the divine Majesty,] He afterward heaped it with new gifts and benefits.

D. 13.

[35] The year of my tribulation had expired, in which I was afflicted with bitter sorrows, God so disposing, on account of my more copious merit and crown (for not on account of any other offense, as you know, did it happen, than that I wished a beginning to be given to this monastery under the title and Rule of the poor Sisters of St. Clare; bidden by Peter Moliano the Vicar to confess generally. just as by God's grace at present it obtains) when our Pastor and Vicar elected was that glorious soul, that holy soul, and truly blessed, on account of the miracles, which both in life he wrought, and works after death; Brother, I say, Peter ^k of Moliano: who coming to our monastery sometime, after many other things said to me, the Sisters frequently present: Are you Sister Baptista Varana? Prepare yourself, Daughter, for Confession, he first excuses this, because I wish to receive it before about to depart I commit myself to the way. To whom I straightway: There is no need for me, Father, of Confession. And he: Daughter, thus it is inspired to me; and therefore I would have you expiate your faults, knowing, that thus it is for your good. But I replied, That it was not. Then he again: Dismiss the Sisters, and bring your step hither: because that it ought so to be, from inspiration I have known. ^l And when I would not, he asked: Why do you shun Confession? And I answered, Because there is no need of it. Which answer when it seemed to displease him not a little, he said hissing: Away with such an answer; do consider the matter better. O my Father! very benign you were toward this inhuman one.

[36] One day then interposed from his departure, my whole heart began to be gnawed, then instructed by a new light, and itself to reproach me with my inhumanity, saying: Very contumeliously ^m I answered the Father Vicar; truly with him I will lay down my conscience by Confession, when he returns: and this I wrote to him, asking, that of my obstinacy he would make me pardon: and in a few days so much that desire of confessing grew, that with a copious light disclosing many things, which from neglect of conscience I had never washed away by Confession, a place of rest none I found: and therefore I could not but by letters insist, that he would hasten his return. But he, as an experienced physician, wove delays, that he might excite in me a more vehement desire, as afterward he testified to me. But those delays lasted from the Chapter until the festal light of the sacred Stigmata me so great a sorrow of sins (to be deplored with bitter tears as much as not yet remitted, she makes it with great fruit. as not yet remitted) sprung from this, that I had offended the infinite goodness of God, and joined with so great hatred of myself, that from my whole heart I desired to the Father Vicar after Confession to be supremely abominable and detestable. But indeed to me desiring, that he should detest me, God promised it would be that thence he should conceive greater love. And indeed my sins being expiated at his feet by general Confession, with much divine illustration and hatred of myself, so great consolation and pleasure he took, that thenceforth he pursued me with holy love more tenderly, than any other spiritual daughter in this world. And these things I certainly know. But I after Confession even with greater, than he, solace and joy suffused, with tranquil mind thenceforth always was.

D. 14.

[37] A few days interposed, she exhibited herself to be seen by me, not only at the time of prayer, Afterward she presents herself to be seen by her, but almost every other time also, a certain Sister of our Order, her head covered with a black veil, as one of us, most beautiful clearly; and her so clearly I beheld, that never with bodily eyes have I seen any thing more clearly and more gladly, the eye by which the soul saw conciliating a sweetness more limpid, than the corporeal sight could. She moreover exhibited to me singular affability and love with a most glad and beaming countenance: whence I taking very much pleasure, at such a spectacle I clung, from stupor and admiration almost estranged from my senses; nor could I imagine, who she might be: and for this very cause she seemed to applaud herself and to rejoice, and as if to say; Do you not know me? As often as she came into my mind, suddenly from a particular instinct I bent my knees before her, however much at table, at the fire, a certain glorious and lovable Sister: at the gratings I might sit; and to her wishing for her benignity to lift me up from the ground, I by no means assented, thinking it fitting for the cause of veneration, that I be present with bent knee. Her eyes from beauty, as she was wholly most beautiful, seemed to dart rays: she exulted and rejoiced with me, not knowing for what cause or for what, wholly gracious, wholly benign. And these things often and often happening lasted longer; fifteen namely, that I may say something certain, days. In age she would have lived forty years: and when after these things she had disappeared, never thenceforth, as not before, to my eyes was she seen.

[38] Meanwhile I not even by a shadow ever suspected, that she was St. Clare, our Mother glorious and standard-bearer, because never did a desire come upon me of seeing her in this world, whom she understands to have been St. Clare. but only in the other. [But hear, my Father, what this daughter, or, shall I say, your sheep, thought? Always I resisted, that any Sister brought from elsewhere be received here; and that out of good zeal:] I believed therefore her to be of that kind, and by God's will to be placed here, and therefore shown to me, that I might be not contrary to her, but propitious and benign; and I said in my heart: Will any one live either slothful or less content, when she shall be received into our monastery? By the mere nod of her eyes she will console us. Finally when she altogether vanished from my mind, with so great love and devotion toward our glorious Mother St. Clare I was continually inflamed, that of doubting a place is not left, but that it was she: and if ever through the merits of Christ's blood I obtain paradise, her among thousands of thousands I shall know, embrace, and say; My most sweet Mother, you were she, who in the world visited me. Alas for me! what I was, and what I am! and therefore, O all you, who pass by along the way of divine love, attend and see if there is sorrow as my sorrow.

ANNOTATA.

of the Blessed had been given in baptism, but was changed in Religion.

d. Pascuccius thinks the cause to have been, that the father wished his daughter, drawn out from the monastery, to give in marriage, as in fact was done to her cousin Genevra, the daughter of Rodulphus Varani and the widow of Mutius Columnensis, the Blessed having entered there. Rather I would say the father wished, supported by Pontifical authority, that his daughter to some Camerino convent, of laxer institute though, and perhaps of another Order, be transferred; and this from what followed afterward I seem to myself to understand. For he did not acquiesce sooner, than he saw his daughter at Camerino in a new monastery of the old observance founded for this (for she herself did not wish to dismiss poverty dear to her). But when below at no. 35 she says, that the year of that her tribulation first expired, when in the year 1484 already established at Camerino, in peaceful possession she was of the observance there instituted; that tribulation seems to have begun in January or February of the year 1483; but that it be said to have begun before Profession, it is necessary that this was deferred to 15 or more months from the habit taken up.

f. Jacobillus in vol. 3 in the Supplement to April 7 writes, that in the year 1484 on January 4 the Nuns were brought thither, where before he says were Tertiaries Gonzaga, some of whom remained there having taken the Rule, for others provision being made elsewhere. Pascuccius calls it the monastery of the Belmaneri, under the Olivetan Congregation, whose remnants were thence translated to the extremity of the Burgh. Waddingus to the year 1483 thus writes: "Julius Caesar de Varano, and the citizens of Camerino, this year on the 6th of the Kalends of September asked the Pontiff, that the Order of St. Benedict being suppressed in the ancient and almost ruined monastery of St. Constantia, in which only one decrepit Nun had remained; it might be permitted from the price and the rubble of the same to construct another monastery of the Order of St. Clare, according to the primitive institutes of the same Order, under the invocation of St. Mary-the-new, and the governance of the Friars Minor of the observance, in another more convenient and more honorable place. The Pontiff assented, on this condition, that the church of St. Constantia be not profaned, but in it sometimes Masses be celebrated, and the decrepit Nun be provided with suitable sustenance." Hence those Relics of St. Constantia Virgin and Martyr, which Gonzaga says were had there. But in all eight were first enclosed there, says Jacobillus in the Supplement.

g. Therefore January 16, for in the year 1484 Bissextile with Dominical letters DC, January 4, on which we said they entered, was a Sunday. The Camerino MS.: "On the first, nay second, (if I rightly remember) Friday."

by Arturus in the Franciscan Martyrology on July 25, and deservedly; for Jacobillus testifies of him in vol. 2 at the said day, that his body in the twelfth year after death found whole, and translated to the new convent within the city, rests under the high altar. But he died on the feast of St. James, while in the choir the Te Deum was being sung. In placing his death in the year 1489 all err: and the error Waddingus acknowledged and retracted in the last volume, a letter being found in which the Blessed says, that she had transcribed many of those things which she had written before and begun at Urbino, on the last day of January of the year 1491, six months from the death of the Moliano one having passed: he had died therefore in the year 1490. Of his miracles moreover some Waddingus relates to the year 1489 no. 34.

* B. 9.

CHAPTER V.

Other divine favors toward Baptista, and the testing and tribulation that followed them.

B. 10 D. 15

[39] Wonderful are Your testimonies, O Lord, and to the soul

seeking You too credible. [Under the firmament of heaven there are not testimonies clearer and truer, than God's; and to you, Reverend Father, who seek Him in truth, they are too credible. Located in spirit by two Angels at the feet of the Crucified, Therefore I will not conceal, Lord, Your praises from my devout Father;] but I will narrate them, to Your magnificence and my confusion; [yet not to the incredulous and senseless; but to you, my Father; because I know, that he who tests, believes.] But you, Angelic spirits, of whom some things come to me to be remembered, suppliantly I pray, that you be present to me; that truly into light I may bring forth the affability and benevolence of you, exhibited to my ungrateful soul. Few days had elapsed, from when the holy Mother Clare had withdrawn herself from the sight of my soul; when there appeared two Angels, clad in most white garments (such as I had long ago seen Christ the Lord wear) and comely with gilded wings: of whom the one took my soul by the right, the other by the left hand, and lifted it on high, and placed it at the feet, affixed to the cross, of the incarnate Son of God; and in that manner for more than two continuous months they held it: I meanwhile to walk, speak, and do whatever I wished, seemed to myself without a soul, fixed there, where by the Angels, never thence departing, it was held. and there detained two months, Nor however do I remember, that I ever before felt a desire of standing always at the feet of Christ. That time elapsed, they restored the soul to its body, so great thenceforth love and devotion toward the Seraphim remaining for me, that nothing else I wished to speak of, than of them; always with ardent affection and prayer asking, that one of them to me, as once to Isaiah the Prophet, would fly.

[40] And when often through many days having prayed, of my vows I was not made partaker; I turned sometime my prayer in the morning time before Prime to the sweet Mother of God, and with a certain holy impatience I said: O most sweet Mother, O most benign Queen, she asks one of the seraphim to be sent to her: I know You to be the Empress of the Angels, and that all obey You as their Lady; I pray You, most sweet my Lady, command some Seraph, that to me he fly, just as he flew to ^a the Prophet Isaiah: You know, my most holy Mother, how greatly I desire it. And she, not suffering my prayer to be drawn out at length, suddenly promised of her own accord, that she would send what was asked: whence very glad with my whole heart I exulted. After some days at night, Matins finished, to prayer I gave myself, and a desire came upon me of meditating more attentively the greatness of divine love toward creatures. That manner of praying was little used by me, and the love of God toward creatures being seen, but I permitted my mind to follow, where it was drawn by God; and the beginning of my thoughts was of things lowest and most abject; but soon in an ineffable manner I was translated to the sublime and divine, [and I entered a sea so high and deep, that twice or thrice I wished to retrace my way, if I could]. Nor was that a reasoning or a vision, but a certain light, by words altogether inexplicable ^b. [Yet I will say for your consolation some things, namely three, for the rest cannot be said, but only by God's grace considered. The first is, that contemplating, of what kind and how great are the benefits afforded us by the most benign and most clement God out of love of us, we shall find, that we remain debtors of two things, which by paying we shall never be able to discharge: namely of the love, with which He Himself first us, than we Him, loved; and of the passion, which for us most vile little worms, full of stench and offensiveness, He underwent: and these two are an insoluble debt. and more intimately known how great in it, The second was, that all our love toward God is as it were a most evil hatred, all praise as a curse, all giving of thanks as a blasphemy; if it be considered in what sublime degree those things are owed to so great a God. The third finally, which I saw clearly and most manifestly, is, that the glorious Mother of God, together with all angelic and human nature, does not suffice to pay thanks to the divine goodness, for the creation of one most vile little flower of this earth, produced for the cause of our utility, on account of the infinite excellence and greatness of the Creator, and our vileness and abjection.

[41] Now indeed, my Father, I would have you think, in how great an abyss I found myself, considering so great benefits of His conferred on me, to be nothing other than flowers and herbs. Then namely I truly despaired of myself, and of every good work of mine: then I repudiated from my whole heart all spiritual delights, that I might not add debt to debt and ingratitude to ingratitude; so that, she learns that our things are nothing compared to His conferred if Christ had appeared to me, I would have closed my eyes, that I might not see. Then with head bowed on the earth I asked of God grace, that He would continually to the very end of my life without intermission place me at the most clement feet of His crucified son; and that all the time, which I should pass there, be imputed to me, as if blaspheming God and fornicating spent (for I was certain, that both that and every other evil I would have perpetrated, if with His merciful hand He had not held me) finally that after death He would send me, where to His honor greater it should please Him, even in hell to dwell most willingly, because His will alone, in me and through me to be fulfilled, was in my prayers; that was for me as beatitude, that as reward, that as glory.] I saw so immense and by no bounds circumscribed, with which God embraces creatures, a love, that returned into myself I could not but exclaim: She has present to her the feet of Christ for a whole five years O folly, O folly! for I thought no word could be found more fitting for so great a love. Then there were granted to me those most gracious feet, of whose possession for five years I rejoiced with continual memory of them and peace so great, that if I should tell it, I should be thought to speak incredible things. Now of those feet bereft, now of a garment so rich despoiled, now of the treasure of my heart so opulent deprived I am. O feet, O sole and only hope of my soul, how can it be, that I live without you, who were the life, heart and treasure of my soul? O my Jesus, at least for the space of one hour grant them to me, [and though You thrust me down to the lower regions, gladly so I will go to them]. So great a copiousness of tears, I know, I would pour forth, so much I would embrace and kiss those most holy wounds, that my heart would burst for me, and afterward she bewails them taken from her. and so this wretched and stinking body would be destroyed. O most sacred feet, for love of you it is a pleasure to me to see the feet of all, to handle, to kiss, to embrace! O most sweet feet, into how great bitterness for me are turned the banquets, over you celebrated for me, [such were the devout lamentations, filled with love and piety!] O lovable feet, never had I believed, that this place was to be interdicted and taken away from me, where adulteresses and harlots have found asylum! Alas for me, and a thousand and a thousand times alas for me! how much more calamitous and unhappy am I than all other sinners! [O most clement feet, did I not spare the weariness of him, to whom these things are written, this whole all-of-it ^c Friday day with such sighs and lamentations I would give!] Nor wonder at these things, my Father; because just as gold all the rest of the metals surpasses in splendor, so this sorrow than all the rest of the torments is more painful to me; I believe, because longer this grace than others I enjoyed. And therefore the cithara of my confidence is turned into mourning. Most pleasant and most sweet those feet have made me wander from my purpose; but with the grace of God I will pursue now and weave to the end, the web which by His grace and inspiration alone I have begun.

B. 11 D. 16

[42] That light, of which just now, vanishing, so great a fire settled in my soul, that with the highest truth I dare to say, Wholly kindled with divine love that it truly inflamed burned with this immaterial flame, just as material things by a material one are wont. There endured moreover this fire, if I rightly remember, easily three months ^d; and it was a desire of going out of the prison of this body and enjoying Christ, a desire exceeding measure, a desire so great and so intense, that, if I should say it, I might fear, lest credit among hearers I find not. [But God knows, that I speak true things]. The desire was so seething and inflamed, that through the summer in my body I seemed to carry about the infernal pains; nay these I thought a refreshment, compared with mine, she desires to die and to be with Christ: never thenceforth to be sought by me, except in the hour of death: because dying with such desire, not to die, but to a wedding to betake myself with sounding organs I should seem. Then I could say with the Apostle: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." And with the Prophet: "Bring out my soul from the flesh to confess to Your name; the just await me until You reward me." Then clearly I knew, that of the Seraphim some had flown to my soul, just as had promised, their and equally my most sweet Empress, the most holy Mother of God.

[43] who sweetly consoles her concerning the delay, Meanwhile I vehemently afflicted and tormented, both in soul, and in body, by this ardent desire, most bitterly lamented and sobbed, praying instantly God, that from the misery of this body and the world He would snatch me. Whence one day at the time of prayer, to me asking this very thing more instantly of God, there seemed Christ the blessed to show much commiseration, and surrounding with one arm my soul to apply it to His breast, saying again and again, Do not so greatly weep; but with the other hand the eyes of my soul He wiped; for that lamentation was of the soul, not of the body, although also corporeally most copiously I wept. But indeed so far is it, that those most sweet words of Christ should diminish my sorrow, because for His life others prayed. that rather into tears wholly they dissolved me, praying more ardently, that from this custody He would bring out my soul. To which petition He at length answered; Not yet can I; and at the same time His most powerful hands He showed me, in various ways bound and constrained, saying: These are the prayers of your Sisters the Nuns and of the Brothers of the Observance, which for you they pour forth, that you not die: be patient.

[44] What now I am going to relate, I know not indeed whether before or after it was in the manner said. [She understands why she is tormented by that desire, whence the Seraphim rejoice,] Feeling sometime so great a spiritual fire that to bear it I was not, I turned myself, as if destitute of senses, to the Seraphim, lamenting and as if repenting, that the presence of them by prayers from God I had asked, saying: O spirits most sweet, I so fervently your access to me asked, thinking, that he who in your presence, the same also in paradise rejoiced, because you to God are most near; by what fate then after your coming

do I endure the pains of hell? I am ignorant indeed, what you bring with you. Then they with me most familiarly, just as conversing with an acquaintance and friend, said, What for you is a cause of pain, for us is of pleasure: with the flame of vehement desire indeed you seethe, but as long as you are held by the body, you lack the presence of Him who is present to us: and therefore so grave a torment is to you, as the desire is ardent. and that she has more fire than light. But for us, an intense desire always having with the presence of the beloved, the pleasure is intensified according to the intensification of the desire incomprehensibly. After these things they declared to me, that the inmost presence of themselves with God is of such kind, that God without them, or they without God never either are or could be. They declared moreover, that so close between the Seraphim and the Cherubim there intervenes a conjunction, that neither could ever without the others in the soul dwell, subjoining: True indeed it is, that in one soul the Cherubim obtain the first place, in another the Seraphim; but in yours, to us Seraphim the principality has fallen; and therefore in you the fire prevails over the light. And so in truth the matter was. For although the light, as above I mentioned, was for its intensification incomprehensible; nevertheless it by three parts surpassed the fire. And hence most clearly I understand, that those two Angels, who so long held me brought to the feet of the Crucified, were one a Cherub, the other a Seraph. This is that fire, by which I said I was baptized and purged, a pure and general Confession being added, made to my glorious and blessed Father Peter of Moliano.

B. 12 D. 17

[45] Truly the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the bread of Angels. Thus I speak, A great hunger for the Eucharist because after the Angelic visitation so great an appetite and hunger for the most holy Sacrament remained for me, that to fill it in no way could I: and hence for almost two continuous years to the sacred table on every Sunday I came, desiring daily to frequent the same: but to me thinking, that until the eighth day from it I must abstain, from sorrow my mind failed. Thus three years before ^f, than my tribulation began, I found rest and rejoiced in my mental and Angelic peace. Then all the ways of Sion, that is, of holy Paradise, to me lay open free, level, unobstructed; and I ran through them swiftly, desire and pious prayer removing every impediment. she joins it with continual meditation of the Passion. Then truly, my Father, either I had, or seemed to myself to have an angelic and heavenly rather than a human and earthly heart: nor any other pride in it did I feel except this; that if any one then had said, that I would come to that state, to which to have come you know, never would I have brought into my mind to believe, that it could be. This, I say, in my heart pride I felt, of nothing besides conscious to myself. Then that holy meditation I instituted by a singular gift of the Holy Spirit, by which I desired, as I desire now, that all the days of my life into the holy Friday be turned; kindled with desire of lamenting always the most bitter Passion of my sweet Jesus, that in the hour of my death there appear to me resuscitated and glorious. From that time, neither of Easter, nor of Christmas, nor of any other festal light, by the Church wont to be celebrated, a distinction with me was; nay not even on holy Friday could I do anything other than attend to the accustomed exercise. True indeed it is, that my thought rapt me as if unwilling to recall the mysteries, which the Church militant on feasts represents; when nevertheless fixed and firm it was for me to persevere in the meditation of the Passion, that which I had instituted, when I desired my whole life into the holy Friday to be turned. And so the last things answer to the first, that is, just as on holy Friday I began through your holy sermon [g] to work my salvation; so likewise on the holy Friday of my meditation, I end the relation of my spiritual life, to be made to you, who were the beginning.

[46] I had passed in this manner through the desert of this world, abounding in delights, leaning upon my beloved suffering one, separated from Him in body, but not in mind. She is bidden to write the mental sorrows of Christ, And now was approaching the time of my unhappiness and spiritual ruin, which to me (because all past and future things are known to His eyes) He foretold in this manner; but I, rude and ignorant, did not understand. One day scarcely had I given myself to prayer, when suddenly to me it was said; Go, about to commit to paper those mental sorrows of the Passion, which you know. And I excusing myself, answered: My Lord, I do not even know, in what manner I should begin; nor is it my mind to narrate, those things to have happened to me. Then I was bidden to set the beginning in this manner: There was a certain soul most desirous of feeding itself: and it was thus further dictated, until two verses of one page were filled: when suddenly rising to my feet I obeyed the precept, so great a copiousness of words flowing, that, what was to be written, never did it behove me to recall in mind. Similarly also now to me it happens, that as often as to writing I gird myself, and she understands herself to be afflicted anew, a trouble I suffer not light; but thenceforth further even to me not thinking the discourse abounds: O how much that thing was adverse to me! For it seemed to wish to say: I see and foresee, that the vessel of your soul is to be infected not a little, nay so much, that you will cast out the balsam of my mental sorrows, and pour it out on others, since on account of your infection to profit you any more it will not be able. And these things are true. But that which now at hand I have, lest either a like event or a worse even it obtain, vehemently I fear. As if God should say, Vomit out of your mouth all my goods, because I wish to vomit you out of my mouth. O my God, free me from that bitter sentence!

D. 18.

[47] August was the month being passed, in which begun was my cruel contest; as it happened to her on the octave of St. Francis: but I, the wiles of Satan not knowing, and rejoicing in deep peace of soul, secure of war I acted, and so every machination of the enemy I esteemed peaceful and devoid of danger. Then to the Octave of St. Francis [h] it was come, when so cruelly by those same enemies I was received and struck, that to persuade myself I could no longer, that either they were friends or their machinations good [i]: nay I knew manifestly, and in fact I experienced, that they were capital enemies of my soul. Then God opened my eyes a little, and I saw myself in the middle of the field, where the battles of this mortal life are fought, surrounded by powerful enemies; from whose hands to snatch me alone could the divine power, going to seek in vain otherwise ways of escaping. Then with irremediable sorrow I was overwhelmed, and what other counsel I should take being ignorant, the Octave of St. Francis on bread and water feeding alone I passed, the help of God and of the said Saint continually imploring. Then at night in sleep there was represented to me every labor and affliction, which awaited me. Here we hung up our organs. when she saw herself given over to the demon to be vexed: Here was the end of my goods, here the beginning of my evils. Then the pit of the abyss of diabolical depravity, which for ten years that venomous dragon, with open jaws roaring against me, with so great impetus and fury, that me alive, alive I say, to swallow he seemed to wish; and so as far as pertains to his malign will, he swallowed and devoured me. But the powerful hand of God, which never forsook one hoping in it ^l, drew me out whole and unharmed from the roaring jaws of him, as is known to you; and that by His goodness alone, by no means indeed by my virtue or prudence. Then I was stripped and despoiled of every rich and precious garment. Then were plucked out my eyes; then shorn the hairs of my spiritual fortitude: moreover they struck, wounded, and half-alive left me and departed.

[48] In these two years, in which in so wretched a manner I was afflicted, no help at all or human consolation I felt, except thrice, when with my holy and glorious Father Brother Peter of Moliano I conversed. and Peter of Moliano, who had consoled her, being dead, For very much I rejoiced, when him Vicar I learned to be elected, saying: [If only with him a power of dealing be granted me], never will the demon effect, what he intends; but straightway help I will experience. O my holy Father, you came indeed [even afterward] ^m into these parts; but your beloved Daughter could not address you, not even in few words, as one before by death snatched away. This death afflicted me too much, this me of myself as it were destitute, and in a manner desperate compelled firmly to determine, in no man thenceforth as to this my necessity, to put confidence, unless God should point him out to me by His grace. O my Father, wholly poured back into him from whom she had her beginning, you wished to leave me an orphan, because thus you knew it expedient for my salvation. First suddenly from your death you deprived my enemies of all power, and brought me back into the way of truth. Then God inspired me through his ⁿ intercession, that just as in him, so in you also [Father mine, old man] my confidence I should place, and in order declare to you all my tribulation, as it had been carried out; and by illuminating He taught, that thus it behoved for my salvation: nor indeed did that dissonate from truth, as you know. But there happened to me the said inspiration, so bitter and to my will contrary, she feels herself relieved. that exceeding all human thought, by God alone could the bitterness be comprehended. But after, as they had been done, I narrated all things (not flattering I speak, but truthful) so quiet and consoled I was, that I would not to any other of this world, than to your reverend Paternity to have trusted.

ANNOTATA.

after the 5 years at the feet of the Crucified, to be begun from the year 1484, more than a three-month space remains, until the beginning of the new temptation; which lasting through two and a half years, she was compelled to write such things.

f. That

is, from the year 1484: for the tribulation began on October 11 of the year 1487, so that all the aforesaid visions preceded the autumn of that year.

g. Thus the Protocol: nor could the MS. have it otherwise, which Cimarella followed, if indeed it was an autograph: but some unskilled person could either in the margin have noted, or to the text added the name of B. Fr. Peter of Moliano, which the Venetian edition has and from it Pascuccius; and which drew both this man and others into error, that they believed this relation to have been written to him, because it was written to the one, to whose sermon the Blessed attributed the beginning of her conversion, above no. 4.

i. Hence it is understood that God permitted, that the ministers of Satan, transforming themselves into Angels of light, should delude our Blessed for two and more continuous months, whose fallacious consolations or apparitions she then first recognized, when she began to feel their most bitter effects, namely a great desolation, dryness, and obscurity of mind. For to this makes that which she said at no. 27, that her soul, which lay in saffron, embraced the dung of the most stinking devil, led into an error, which in that perturbation she could not discern from formal sin, when the urging temptation impelled her to judge, that which she suffered unwilling, to be imputed to her by God for sin, and therefore that she was treated by Him in hostile fashion, which is the extreme affliction of a pious soul.

k. Those ten years seem to be numbered from the year 1477, in which the Blessed entirely surrendered herself to God calling her to Religion, after some months perhaps, after the Confession made at Easter, still struggling. But why does she not say from six years, that the tribulation she suffered before her Profession might be indicated? I think, because that was wholly external, nor was then to the devil given power of afflicting the soul interiorly.

elsewhere hitherto no perturbation appears; nay nor any obscurity notable, except that the name of him to whom it is written is not expressed. There are wanting also in Cimarella those words, "my Father," which are in the Macerata edition; and Euphrosyna adds, "Vecchiarello," which signifies "Little Old Man."

CHAPTER VI.

Three letters, after the history of her life successively added.

[49] The Camerino autograph, just as Sister Euphrosyna transcribed it, To the writings of March 3 she adds the mental sorrows of Christ, which we call the Protocol (because we think the Blessed herself reserved it for herself, after she had written the other somewhat more polished and fuller) the first, I say, autograph is finished with the date written on the 3rd day of March, 1491, then consequently is subjoined: After I have set forth the course of my spiritual life, only that I may obey the divine inspiration, here I make an end to the praise of Jesus Christ the glorious. Then follow the mental sorrows of Christ the blessed, which I said He commanded me to write. In which observe, that I say, that one of the Sisters of Urbino conferred such things with me, that it be not thought that they are of my own flour: and therefore I speak in the third person: but afterward she interposes two letters in the new copy, sometimes also I say, This holy and blessed soul thus to me said, the better to obtain from readers belief, and that they not think that it was I. THE END. This treatise therefore, separately written in another quire, the Blessed kept, likewise to be shown to her spiritual Father when he should have come to Camerino: for she had not yet determined to commit things so secret to a letter-carrier. But while she awaits him, two letters successively she wrote: one without a date, which indeed is found; the other under the date of the 13th day, just as those autographs are had in the Macerata edition, together with a thanksgiving to God for her manifestation, candidly and entirely written. But meanwhile the Father not coming to Camerino, the Blessed felt herself goaded, that the things she desired communicated, through a messenger at least she should send him; and to that end she wrote the second autograph, which Cimarella used. But in the course of recopying (as is wont to happen) she changed and added certain things, above indicated by these signs []; but reserving the clause concerning the mental sorrows to the end of the new writing, she also erased the note of the 3rd day of March. Then consequently writing the first and second letter, she likewise omitted the note of the 13th day, since that had now equally flowed by as the 3rd day, and there was being passed the 20th day of the month; and thereupon also the third. when she wrote the third letter, either separately, or at the end of the very quire which she was going to send. She also wrote a new copy of the aforesaid treatise on the mental sorrows, the formula of transition somewhat changed, to be made from one to another subject, as below we shall see. These things being thus distinguished, I hope nothing of perturbation and obscurity will remain. Let then the first letter be.

[50] My reverend and most beloved Father. For many causes I hoped for rest and a truce a little from the capital fight of two years: but alas for me, my Father, vain was this my hope! nay after your departure The first explains her present calamity, especially by rising against God, imputing to Him whatever of defect, of sin, and of error I committed; expostulating thereupon with Him, ascribing on account of various things, both to Him, and to sacred Scripture, a lie, which is the worst iniquity ^b; finally doing other things, which here with silence I pass over. And I believe, most devout Father, when you hear these things, you will think this my poor soul after your departure, from which six months are now elapsed, to have been in a temporal hell; and to speak truly, it seemed to me wholly infernal and diabolical. But what, surpassing every sorrow, broke my heart, is, that with no one to confer speech however brief, or solace the least in so great my necessity and torment, as you know, was it granted. O my Father, where in the world were you! O my Father, I was much tormented in that time, and to address you it was not permitted me, nor me to you! aggravated by the Father's absence, O my unhappiness, O my misfortune, between whose beginning and end a great interval intervened! and therefore in all this sorrowful narration I groaned again and again these tearful voices: O all you who pass by along the way of divine love, attend and see, if there is sorrow like to my sorrow! O my Father, you alone I address, consider and see, whether there be sorrow equal to mine! and she sets herself as an example to others, O would that God gave me a voice so powerful, that by the whole world I could be understood! I would cry out and say: O all you servants and handmaids of God, who tread the way of divine love, learn by my example and humble yourselves, because even now it can be, that one converse with God, with the blessed Virgin Mary, with the Angels and Saints; and then by a miserable fall plunge into many deadly offenses; as fell ^c I: let be for you an example this unfortunate and most unhappy soul, which came into the height of the sea of divine love and spiritual sweetness; but now a strong tempest has sunk it into the depth of the abyss and of hell.

Farewell Father etc., perhaps as below, added probably also the note of the day, which we do not wish by conjecture to append.

[51] The second letter, drawn up in the manner of a testament, was such. Eccli. 40, Sententiously was it said by Ecclesiasticus, that all the waters, which go out from the sea, to the same return: so it is just and fitting, The second commits herself wholly to him, that since through the grace of God I ought to Your Reverence the beginning of my salvation, the same salutary waters through the circle of time flowing, God disposing, to you return; and again flow: you planted, the other holy Fathers watered, but God until now has given the increase. The cunning of Satan rooted it out, but still in it is something of greenness, that is, the inwardness and promptitude and love of the will to good, which God so and in such a manner kept, that unharmed, untouched and unspotted, corporeally He kept me: and unspotted, by God's grace, not my virtue, I remain, and truly with the Mother of God I can say: "I a man know not." Render therefore with me, most beloved Father, thanks to my creator, who deigned to keep me as a friend and spouse.

[52] I do not at all doubt, my Father in the crucified Jesus, but that this thing, new to my soul (for never did I do anything of this kind) will bring forth either a great evil, or a great good: but I from my whole heart beseech God and His glorious Mother, that they may deign to signify, that this is my last end, as if by testament and about to die soon, and my last testament. But if so, as truly I desire, it were; I make a testament of my things, that is, of soul and body, because besides these neither by love, nor by desire, nor by affection truly anything do I possess in this world. The body I leave to the earth and may God grant, that into stench and dust, as befits its vile matter, shortly it be resolved. The soul into your arms full of charity I resign, my most beloved Father, who according to God are the one and only hope of my salvation: and I am certain it will be, that through the precious blood of Christ and through your prayers I shall find a place of peace and mercy: nor will forgetfulness of you ever seize me. Farewell best Father in my Lord Jesus, whom for your daughter remember to entreat. In the monastery of St. Mary the new of Camerino, March 13. In the year of the Lord 1491. Sister Baptista.

Thus the Macerata edition, in which soon separately and in a larger character follows this Prayer. Infinite thanks I give You, And she gives thanks to God for the thing accomplished. my Lord, that by Your gift, with the highest truth and simplicity I have narrated Your truth: and I pray likewise that You bestow Your grace, by which simply these things be believed to Your praise and glory, and my temporal confusion and shame.

[53] The third letter finally (of which at Camerino no copy remained, and which Cimarella found, alone of all furnished with the note of the day, and she sends all things to the aforesaid Father. and an initial salutation and final commendation) is of this tenor: My reverend Father in the crucified Jesus. The things which have been said hitherto about my spiritual life, since to know I seemed

it to be by divine inspiration, out of obedience I have determined to narrate: and I thought indeed at first before you to relate those things with living voice; but to writing I was driven: then I determined with my own hand to deliver them written to you; but it is necessary that I send them: nor do I know for what reason or end. Would that you rightly understand me! In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[54] The things which follow, are those mental sorrows of Christ the blessed, as also the mental sorrows of Christ revealed to her, which I said it was commanded me to write: [d] but observe, that when I returned to Camerino, something of them from time to time to my Sisters I said, to their and my consolation; and I added, that one of the Sisters of Urbino about such things had conferred with me, that they not suspect them to be of my flour. But Sister Pacifica often and often prayed me, that those things I should write: but I answered, that never would I do it as long as that Sister lived. But since, when it was commanded me that I should ^e write, more than two years had passed, since of them to me she had spoken no more; as in the time of her tribulation, now compelled to write, to that same Sister Pacifica I directed my pen, because she then was my Reverend Abbess, and I her unworthy Vicar; feigning however always, as I had said to her, that a certain Sister of the Urbino monastery such and so devout things conferred with me: and therefore sometimes I say, This holy soul, This blessed soul thus to me said: and that in good faith, that readers not think it to be I. But those things for the utility of souls, loving Christ's Passion, I relate, as follows. Then it begins as above she indicated at no. 46. There was a certain soul: which little treatise it pleases below to put into Latin: now I proceed to relate certain things written after the same, and at the same time with all the foregoing printed at Macerata, among which the chief is the letter, dictated to Baptista herself by Christ, for the time of her future and so greatly desired tribulation.

ANNOTATA.

a. There is understood that Father, to whom after the death of the Moliano one with so great solace of hers the Blessed had opened herself (as at the end of the Relation premised she had explained), to have not long after departed from Camerino; and to this also makes, that above at no. 32 she complains of him, as if he hated and fled the place.

in her Life by Puccinus; recounting them for the sake of humbling herself to a certain Novice, in the Life by Ceparius no. 183, accuses herself as if most grievously in all those she had sinned.

c. Namely as to the sense, which made all these things to be apprehended as mortal; not as to the consent of the superior will, always adhering to God, so however that hardly did she herself perceive it, on account of the vehemence of the temptations; which the following letter soon proves.

CHAPTER VII.

A letter, dictated to the Blessed by Christ, forearming her for future temptations, and certain other things pertaining to the same.

[55] My Sister, since often you have said to me, that God in the beginning of your vocation, to you promised some great tribulation; and that you fear, lest when you are in those pains, Christ enjoins her, that in the time of her tribulation, you forget the promise given to you, and therefore become as it were desperate; I have determined to dictate to you this letter, as a memorial: nor do I doubt but that even alone it will bring you great refreshment in your anguish. Remember therefore first, that your vocation was not made by human words, but by the voice of God against your will; and that after the conceived desire of doing good things, suddenly succeeded another of tolerating evils, and at once you began to be sick. Remember also that from childhood I always drew you to meditate my Passion, in whose likeness I wish that you pass this life, as much as mortal fragility will be able to bear. she remember her vocation. Begin moreover to announce to yourself your pains, when you are in prayer; and this I pray and beseech that you do, because you cannot do anything more pleasing to me. For just as worldly men more love to see their beloved in one dress than in another; so know, that to me it more pleases to behold you in that virtuous dress. Consider moreover that when I in prayer was, it pleased my Father to show me all the pains, which to suffer and tolerate I ought; and then I stripping myself of all my own will, said, Be done Your will. And so much was I kindled with charity in that my prayer which I said, that I wished in such torment to die, not for my utility, but only for the honor of my Father and for the salvation of souls. and prepare herself for tolerance by His example, But I returned a third time to prayer, that I might give to understand to you and to whoever desires to please me in truth, that it does not suffice to pray once, but that the perseverance of praying delights, surpasses, and conquers me.

[56] though nature resist, Remember, that although I God came that I should suffer; yet the Passion approaching, because I was also man, I was compelled to pray and say, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. So to you also I say, daughter, that although often you have asked me that I grant you to suffer; gladly; by accepting the pains prepared for her, when however on account of the multitude of pains you have prayed me saying, Let pass from me this cup if it is possible; because you will conclude by adding, Be done Your will; do not think you despair or displease me: for therefore the same I did inasmuch as man, that to you and others I might go before by example. But if the benignity of the Father be so great, that when amid those pains you will persevere in prayer, He may deign to you to show all which await you still, as He showed me; and you so be inflamed that you wish to suffer them, not for your utility, but only for the love of God and the salvation of neighbors, as I did; on account of this likeness of me which you will assume, my Father will be compelled in the highest degree of true charity to love you. Do therefore cordially give thanks to God for the pains, which He has prepared for you out of His benignity; and grieve bitterly for those which He has not prepared for you on account of your ingratitude and defect of spirit: and know His charity to be so great, that He would wish to send upon you every evil, that occasion He might have of giving you every good. Acknowledge with giving of thanks, that you do not merit so great a good, as it is to be made conformable to His beloved son by the way of passion: for this is the nuptial garment, with which I your true spouse have always been clad. But indeed the most precious gem, after a good will, which God can give you, is the tolerance of evil. Which evil indeed just as I could have escaped, as a most precious thing. so also can you avoid it: but know, that if you flee, you will flee every good: because just as the choice of suffering, which I made out of mere love and charity, pleased my Father; so also it is needful that you do, if you wish to render yourself like me that to my Father you become pleasing. But when thus inflamed with charity I departed from prayer, I went forth to meet the enemies: so you also go to meet them without fear. I was betrayed by a kiss by a disciple, so also you will be deceived and afflicted by those, whom you love and to whom you wish well.

[57] Remember that here I teach you five points. The first, that when you shall be offended, more you grieve for the offense of God, than for your pain. The second, pray me cordially, that to those offending you I pardon, and free them from the deserved pain; as you would wish to free your eye or any other member of yours from torment, The same teaches her how injuries are to be received, because in truth your neighbor is your eye and your member. The third, that you know, that more you are obligated to him who does you evil, than to him who does good; for such purge your soul, and it make beautiful, gracious, and acceptable in my sight. The fourth, consider how great is my charity, that although you were my mortal enemy on account of the faults committed, nevertheless every injury done to you I would reckon to be done to me: and therefore I wish that you grieve for my offense. With such hatred I would wish you had hated your enemies, that is, that every evil which happens to them, you think to happen to you. The fifth, that you think you receive only a part of those things which you deserve, and all by my permitting done for your good, nor to them impute as sin whatever they do.

[58] Consider, that the kiss received, Judas and the crowd I asked, Whom do you seek? And when to them I said, I am He, so great was the power of the word, that into the earth they fell: but by the same word was given to them power, that they might seize me. That is, just as I inasmuch as man united my will to the divine, and in those things the will is to be united to the divine, saying, Be done Your will, and therefore could not the enemies harm me; and thence they ought to have known, that power to be not human, but divine; divinely however it was granted them, that what they wished they might do against me: so if your will in any thing whatever you deliver to God, saying from the heart, Be done Your will, in such manner you will be assimilated to me by the union of your will with the divine, that demons to harm you in nothing will be able, before to them be given faculty, but they will fall nor prevail against you. Not however by demons or other creatures, which from God have received power, will you be tormented as much, as I, the only son of God, by all deserted and forsaken: but you the more you find yourself forsaken, the more rejoice the more intensely, and to me give thanks. I was presented to diverse Princes, with various torments and mockeries, wishing to assimilate her to His passion. and that by that people whom I loved: you therefore if from various persons injuries, contumelies, reprehensions you endure, exult and give thanks to me. I remained naked on the cross: and I wish that you remain naked also on the cross of Religion, that is, stripped of all love. I was fastened with three nails: and you also with as many will be crucified, namely by poverty, obedience, and chastity. Many other things I have told you, of which I do not wish now to make mention.

[59] He bids her remember His favors Remember, that a greater sign of love I have shown you, when I afflicted you; than while I held you constrained between my most sweet arms. But when you shall feel some great pain, remember how often also you were called Daughter, Spouse, Sister, and that so sweetly, that thence you languished. Remember, poor little soul, that God told you so much of Himself, that, unequal to bearing so great sweetness, you cried out, No more, Lord; no more; and from humility you fled. Remember, that God to tame your great pride, declared to you, that the signs of love which He showed you, plainly received gratuitously were not on account of the good which you had done, but on account of the mere charity with which toward you He was borne: and this He explained by this similitude. When a physician sees a disease to be perilous and lethal, he does not lead the sick man about through many remedies, but takes the last and most powerful: so also God, as a perfect physician, acted with you: not because you had deserved it, but that by His mere charity He might free you from your grave and perilous infirmity.

[60] and before all merit: Remember, that, to make you more humble, clearly to you He demonstrated, that those sweet and pleasant tastes cannot be obtained by human faculty; but God by His sole and infinite charity of them communicated, as much and to whom it pleased, according to the judgment of His wisdom, and as He knew expedient for the soul, going to receive them. But to you, because you are proud, He wished to give them before you did any good: lest, if to you, in your capital having many evils and sins, and afterward doing some good or evil suffering, He had granted them, you should fall into the snare of pride and to your merits something impute. Know therefore, that, when you shall have avoided many sins and many goods done, and many tribulations endured, much more than before, you will be obligated to God: for great is the benefit, not to sin; greater, to do well; greatest in the superlative degree, to suffer evils for God or for the love of justice. None of these could you do without grace, because "without me you can do nothing." You know, how by experience you have proved, that every evil you would have done, had not God restrained you; no good you would have done, had not with His sweet hand He lifted you up; no pain you would have endured without sin, except by His charity He had given you strength and will that you could. But since this light God has given you, therefore to Him infinitely you are obligated.

[61] Finally remember, that God by His goodness clearly made you see, likewise that she remember her infinite obligation for those things, that although never you had sinned; and more penance you had done alone, than ever have done all the Blessed; as much also you had poured of tears, as for another sea (if it were possible) to make would suffice; as much finally of pains you had tolerated, as nature can hold; yet not would you suffice for giving me thanks for the least benefit which I conferred on you. Think now, how you could satisfy for your infinite and infinite faults; and say, My Lord, life, sweetness of my heart, since I cannot, neither by doing goods, nor by tolerating evils, render thanks to You for so many benefits, or satisfaction for so grave my faults and shameful sins, against You wickedly committed; at least this grace do me, my Jesus, that You reckon me as if I had done every evil, nor any ever good: and grant me, that the little which remains to me of life, I spend according to Your holy will; but after death thither me send, where more I shall be of Your honor: for although to hell You should banish me, there I shall be most content, because I wish that Your honor, my Lord, be my beatitude and glory.

[62] Remember the promises, made to you by me: but how I have made them, I do not write, and of her own free offering for tolerating many things, because you yourself know. Remember the manner, in which to you the tribulation I promised, and nothing to you will appear difficult; for all things quickly pass: after sorrow gladness follows, and serenity after the tempest: but that tempest will be for you in part an acceptable time and the day of salvation. Remember, with how generous a mind you prayed me, saying, At once, quickly, and strongly, my Lord, I cannot longer wait; too much do You defer to give me the promised pains? when will You lead me to those fat pastures of tolerance, where are fattened Your elect little sheep? Remember, when you shall be in the torment of that cross which God destines for you, that you not say ever, O God, why have You forsaken me? The cause you know, because I forbade it you. Remember moreover, that I told you, that the more it pleases you, yourself by me forsaken to see, the more to you I shall be nearer. For I wish the same with you manner to keep, which the Father with me: that is I wish to permit, that as much of pains you tolerate, as your fragility will be able to bear.

[63] Remember, that God told you, that it would be that you fall into a great error, or deception, or temptation, or treason: but do not therefore despair, because nothing so grievously displeases Him as despair. Stand therefore in fear and humility, and that God is to be served gratuitously. just as until today you have stood with confidence in God: for it is needful to turn the leaf: because never so much to yourself you will seem to be in His love and grace, as you will seem to Him to be of hatred and displeasure. But stand strongly and constantly, for to those conquering is given the crown. Remember the royal offering, which you made to God, that you would wish to serve Him, not for escaping hell, or obtaining paradise; but because He is the highest, infinite, and singular good, which from every creature merits every obsequy, love, and praise: and so to serve Him purely and fervently even unto death, even if certain you were, that you were to be damned. Remember, that God has not revealed these things to you, on account of your good and holy life. Remember this, and be confounded, thinking, on this side the great goodness of God, on that your misery and depravity.

[64] I grieve indeed and have compassion on you, O poor little soul, that after so many sweet embraces, Meanwhile Christ consoles her by having compassion so sweet words, by which you spouse and daughter often I called, as you know; after so many testimonies of the greatest love, which not only by words, but by deeds you have proved; after you have felt and tasted God to be above all things lovable, delightful, desirable, gracious, sweet and pleasant, I should permit that into so lamentable a desolation you fall. Stand therefore in fear, and do not say any more, From this may God keep me, from that other I myself will keep myself. For on account of this God made you with great expense understand, that a single ant would suffice to break your neck, did not He restrain you: and never any more in yourself trust, although to so great grace you were led, that daily you wrought miracles. Remember that I taught you, that when in great mourning with devotion you are, you discharge some part of your debt. Remember that this exhortation proceeds not from hatred, and forearms her by instructing. but love: because I do not wish to render you in this world a reward for merits, as often has been declared to you. Remember, that God wishes you alone and naked upon the bed of the cross, in which most sacred bed He wishes with you to consummate this holy and spiritual matrimony, by the mediation of love and pain, that you may with the beloved spouse in the Canticles say, "My Beloved to me and I to Him, who is fed among the lilies"; among the lilies, I say, of many pains.

[65] All these things I knew when I was secular, after a firm and irrevocable purpose of serving God under perpetual enclosure, in the Order of glorious St. Clare: but I wrote the same, Christ dictating, when I was at Urbino, five months before I made my Profession. Perpetual praise to Him.

[66] Thus far Sister Baptista, which if a discreet Theologian and one skilled in spiritual things should weigh, [The error, of which she accuses herself as guilty of mortal sin, seems to have been permitted her by God,] altogether I believe he will judge, that the error or deception, into which God permitted her herself to lapse, stuck in the intellect alone, but had nothing conjoined on the part of the will, which would be imputable to sin; for otherwise it would not have been a gift of God, given to her, who out of the highest love the highest tribulation for herself had wished and asked, and that she would be made partaker of her vow God promising she had understood. Nay rather I think, that the sorrow born from the apprehension, though false, of grave and mortal sins, by her during that deception committed, on account of which to God she had been made odious or even reprobate; very greatly conjoined her to Him, persevering nevertheless in His love, and rendered her most like Christ. For He, although He could not apprehend the sins of men by erring as truly His own, because nevertheless He had taken them upon Himself to be paid, to make her more conformable to Christ: so for them grieved and was confounded before His Father, as much as He could have if truly He Himself had committed them, and had become Himself the immediate object of divine hatred and indignation, while meanwhile never more than then in Him had the Father been pleased with Himself. For the confirmation of this truth I think God wished, that that tongue, by which she had believed herself to have blasphemed, should remain after death incorrupt, as if He said the same of her, just as of just Job we read it written; "In all these things Sister Baptista did not sin with her lips, nor anything foolish against the Lord did she speak; but she spoke before me what is right, in which however with Job as my servant Job;" even in those things, in which she seemed to be reproved by God, just as he seems to be reproved through the whole of chapters 40 and 41: who however as if rebuked for foolish speech, said, that which also seemed to say Sister Baptista, "Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes."

[67] For the confirmation of this thing it pleases to read the prayer, which she composed and wrote toward the end of that bitter three-year period, she herself accused herself thus addressing God: O most sweet and most benign God, Father of infinite mercies, behold me Your hundredth little sheep, who almost three years wandered astray, with mind dispersed and vagabond through the brambles and the fields, fed with most bitter herbs and venomous husks. But now, sweet and clement God, from my whole heart I desire to return to You, the fount of true peace. Receive me and take me up on Your merciful shoulders, O good and faithful Shepherd, who laid down Your soul for Your sheep. Bring me back to the fold of Your infinite mercy, and turn not Your face away from me. O sweet my Jesus, do not permit that I be sunk within the most secure

harbor of Religion; you who labored so much and were so near to me, that you might snatch me from the tempestuous sea of this deceitful age. Remember, my Jesus, and it humbled her, how dear I cost you. Remember, most pious God, what price for me you paid at the table of the most bitter cross. Remember, my Redeemer, not what I have done, but what I wished to do for Your honor. My Jesus, I am that publican, who on account of his shame dares not, as neither do I dare, to lift my eyes to heaven; but I stand with face cast down to the earth, striking my breast and saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

[68] O most clement Lord, receive between Your open arms this prodigal son, who from afar returns, Your, not his own goods squandered, not living in truth and rectitude. My Lord, I am not worthy to be called Your handmaid or bondservant, because I have persecuted souls by Your precious blood redeemed. Run to meet me, Lord, with Your grace; press my afflicted soul with Your most sweet arms, just as You were wont in the days of old, and visit the desolate one. O most benign Father, give me the so greatly desired kiss of Your holy peace. Put an end, Lord, and she desired the end of it even through death. to this deadly war, which now almost three years has lasted: but if I do not deserve that it be done in another way, let it be done even through death. O most sweet Jesus, lead me out from this perilous life of the darkness of this world: lead me out from the stinking prison of this wretched body. Draw me to You, pious God, draw me to You: nor make me remain longer in this calamitous exile. I cannot longer remain patiently: all things drive me: infirmity, demons, other creatures, and mental tribulations, and they say, Flee, flee: it is not permitted you here to remain any more. Receive me to You and into You, sweet my Jesus; for as You know, I will come so gladly, that by no words could I explain it. Banish me, where more it shall be of Your honor, until the day of judgment, provided You separate me not eternally from You, as I have deserved, O true and highest good! and that for great mercy I will esteem. Glory to You, Lord. Amen.

REVELATIONS

concerning the mental sorrows of Christ.

From the edition of Dominicus Pascuccius rendered into Latin.

Baptista Verana, of the Order of the poor Sisters of St. Clare, of Camerino in Umbria (B.)

FROM THE ITALIAN AUTOGRAPH.

§. I. Sorrow from the pains of the damned and the elect.

[1] There was a certain devout soul, much desiring to be fed and satiated with the foods of the Passion of the loving Lord and most sweet Jesus: She feigns she heard from another, who after many years, by His admirable favor, introduced to the mental sorrows of His most afflicted heart, said to me, that for a long time she had prayed God, that He would lead her in and submerge her in the sea of His mental sorrows. Therefore that most sweet Jesus, by a singular piety, mercy and grace, deigned, not only once, but often and often her into that most ample ocean to introduce, in such manner and mode, that she was compelled to cry out, No more, Lord, no more, for the vehemence of the pains I cannot endure: and this I easily believe, because I know that He is liberal and benign toward those, who such things from Him know humbly and perseveringly to ask. But she said to me, that blessed soul, that placed in prayer with anxiety of heart she said to God; O Lord, I pray You, that You introduce me into the most sacred bridal chamber of Your sorrows mental: immerse me in that most bitter sea: which Jesus revealed to her, for I desire to die in it, my sweet life. Tell me, Jesus my hope, how great was the sorrow of Your straitened heart. And that blessed Jesus answered her: Do you know how great was my sorrow? so great was it, as the love, with which God and the creature I pursued. Now that blessed soul said to me, that already before at another time God had made her understand, how much it pleased Him in the love with which the creature He pursues: and upon this point to me she said beautiful and devout thoughts so many, that if those also I wished to write, a thing very prolix would become: I will be silent therefore of them, because now only I intend to narrate the mental sorrows of the Lord. But that I may return to my purpose, I say, that when Christ said to her, that so great was the sorrow as was the love toward the creature; that His sorrows were equal to His love toward creatures: from the knowledge which she already had of the greatness and immensity of that love, in measuring the sorrow, all her senses failed; so that it was necessary for her, this word heard, to recline her head to some place, on account of the straits of her heart and the weakness of her whole body. But after she had received somewhat of strength, she said: O my God, since You have now said how great was the sorrow, tell also, Lord, how great were the pains which You bore in Your heart. To whom He sweetly thus answered.

[2] and that they were greatest from the pains of the damned, Know, my daughter, the pains, which I bore in my heart, were innumerable and infinite: for innumerable and infinite are the souls, my members, which from me themselves by sinning separated: but so often each soul separated itself from me, its true head, whence it receives life, as often as it sinned mortally. And this was one of the more cruel pains, which in my soul I bore and felt, namely such a disjoining of my members. For consider, how great a pain he feels who is tortured by the rope, while certain of his members are moved from their natural place; and thence gather what was my martyrdom, from whom so many members were torn away, as souls ever shall be damned; and indeed each member as often, as they have mortally sinned. But by so much the more sorrowful is the disjoining of a spiritual member than a corporeal one, by how much the soul is more precious than the body; but by how much this is more precious than that, neither you nor any man living can understand: while to Him as members were torn from His mystical body, because I alone, who made both, know how great is the nobility of the soul and the vileness of the body: therefore neither you nor any other creature can understand the atrocity and bitterness of my pains; yet I treat now only of the damned souls. But just as one manner of sinning is graver than another, and one sin than another; so more or less of pain gave me the disjoining of one than of another: and hence arises the quality and quantity of the pains. And because I saw their perverse will to be going to endure eternally, therefore to them is destined an eternal punishment: but because more and graver sins committed one than another, therefore in hell more or less is tormented one than another.

[3] and indeed never to be reunited, But a cruel pain, which tormented me, was, that I saw my aforesaid infinite members, that is the souls of the damned, never, never to be reunited to me their true head: and that, Never, torments and will torment eternally those unhappy souls, more than all the other torments which they endure or can endure. But me so much afflicted, that, Never, Never, that I would readily have chosen anew to suffer all those disjoinings, and all their modes which were, are, or will be; not only once, but many and infinite times; that I might see that, I do not say all, but even one single of those souls was to be reunited to the integrity of my other vital members, that is of the elect, eternally to live in the Holy Spirit, through the life proceeding from me; because I am life vital, that is I am the life of all things using life. And here note, how dear to me is the soul of man, since I told you, that for one single I would have wished to suffer so often repeated and so often multiplied pains, and indeed infinite times, only that her I might reunite to me and make my member, I who am the true head of her. Likewise know, that by my justice so afflicts those souls that, Never, Never, that each even would wish by herself a thousand times and infinitely to endure various and infinite pains, provided they could hope sometime to be with me reunited, however long I might bear it: which torments them also most grievously: but that never they will be able, this them supremely torments and afflicts. And so it is to be reasoned of all sins, that, as much of pains those souls to me through each gave, by separating themselves from me, according to the quality and quantity of each sin; so also from my true justice will correspond to them the quantity and quality of their pains. That, Never, Never, torments and afflicts them above all the pains which they suffer and eternally will suffer. And here consider and note, how great a pain I sustained mentally in my heart for all the damned together, and indeed even unto death.

[4] That soul said to me, yet the pains of these now damned that there was suggested to her a holy desire, which she believed infused by God, of proposing a certain doubt; yet with great fear and reverence, lest she should seem to wish to speculate divine things and too profound; therefore with the highest simplicity, purity, and confidence to Him she said: O sweet and afflicted Jesus, I have often heard it said, that You endured the pains of all the damned; I would wish, my Lord, if it pleases You, to know, whether it be true, that You felt that diversity of infernal pains, namely of cold, heat, burning, gnashing of teeth, as suffer all those infernal spirits. Tell, I beseech, Lord, did You feel those things, my Jesus? Indeed while only these things I relate in writing, it seems to me my heart melts, thinking of Your benignity, who so sweetly and so at length speak to one seeking You in truth, and willing You. Then that blessed Jesus, Christ teaches He felt not otherwise, graciously answering, seemed to show that acceptable to Him had befallen such a question, and said: I, daughter, felt not that diversity of pains, which the damned feel, in the manner in which you understand and ask: for they were members dead and cut off from me, their head and body. But this by an example thus I explain. If you have a hand or a foot or any other member ill-affected, until that foot or hand be separated from you, you feel in it a great torment and pain: but after that hand were cut off, if anyone it into the fire should cast, or to dogs or wolves should expose to be devoured, no pain or torment in it would you feel, because it is a member putrid and dead, and wholly disjoined from the head. But do you know what pain you would feel? Because it was your member, you would be afflicted, seeing it cast into the fire, or to wolves or dogs to be devoured exposed. In quite a like manner, those infinite

those members, the damned souls I say, than one feels the burning of a member now cut off. were a sorrow to me, as long as the disjoining itself lasted, and still remained some hope of vital life; and I felt ineffable and infinite pains, and all their straits which they sustained in this life: because until death there remained hope, that they could, if they wished, to me their head be reunited. But after their death no more pain I felt, because as members dead, putrid and divided from me, and wholly cut off and separated they are, nor ever henceforth to me of true life will they be reunited. Yet there was to me a pain incomprehensible and ineffable, considering that they had been my true and proper members, and seeing them in the jaws of the eternal fires, that is in the power of the infernal spirits, and by other most diverse and innumerable pains eternally set.

[5] 2. Christ's sorrow from all the elect about to sin mortally, Another sorrow, which pierced through my heart, was on the part of all the elect: and know that in all those manners, in which I said I was afflicted and tormented in the damned members, similarly afflicted me and tormented the elect members, which could mortally sin, by their separation from me and disjoining. For as great was the love, which toward them I was to have eternally, and they toward me; and as great the vileness, to which they united themselves by sinning mortally; so great was the sorrow, which in all those my members I felt. In this however it differed from that which the damned made me, that of them, as of dead members, I felt no more pain, since separated from me by death; but I felt all the bitterness of the elect and pain in life and after death: namely in life, the martyrdoms of all martyrs, the penances of all penitents, the temptations of all the tempted, the infirmities of all the infirm; persecutions, infamies, pilgrimages, afflictions finally all small and great of all the elect wayfarers, so distinctly and vividly did I experience and feel, as you living would experience and feel, if anyone to you now struck the eye, the hand, or another member of yours. Now consider how many were the Martyrs, and each how various torments sustained in suffering. Add the pains of all the elect members, and the afflictions to be tolerated by them in life, however many there were, and their diversity: and thus reason, If you had a thousand eyes, a thousand hands, a thousand feet, and thus of all other members a thousand, and in each a thousand diverse pains; but all those members in one and the same moment of time were thus tormented, how exquisite would that to you seem a punishment? But my members, O daughter, are not reckoned by thousands or millions, but infinite they were, and without number also are the pains of the Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and of all the other elect. Hence therefore conclude, that just as it cannot be known, how great in paradise are the beatitudes, glories, and rewards prepared for the just elect; so it cannot be understood, of what kind and how great were the mental pains, which on account of my elect members I sustained, to whom by my justice their reward is proportioned.

[6] But after death every diversity of torments, which for their sins they ought to sustain in purgatory, according to the quality and quantity of each, as each more or less deserved, I felt and bore; because they were my members alive, likewise in purgatory: and to me spiritually united, but not putrid and cut off like the damned. Therefore all those pains, about which you asked me whether I felt them, I felt not on account of the damned, for the reason already said, but well on account of the elect: and all the pains of purgatory, which they will have to sustain for their faults, I felt and by experience proved, just as by this example you will understand. If your hand by some sinister chance were broken or otherwise rendered useless, and the surgeon had judged it to be burned, crushed, or to dogs to be put into the mouth; much it would grieve you, because it is a member still alive, and you hope it perfectly whole to be reunited to your body: so all the pains of Purgatory, which all my elect members had to bear, I bore and felt in myself, because they were members to me united and alive, and by that very punishment they had to be perfectly reunited to me their head. But there is no difference of the pains of hell and of purgatory, except that the pains of hell never, never shall have an end; but shall have it the pains of purgatory; and therefore the souls being purged in their pains remain willing and content (although they grieve) because they are purged; and they suffer in peace, giving thanks to the supreme justice. And let these things be said of the mental pains which for the elect I sustained.

[7] Would that now I could remember the devout words which that soul with heartfelt lamentation uttered, understanding how greatly displeased God the gravity of her sins, and how great a pain she brought to her most beloved Jesus, by separating herself from the highest good, that she might cleave to things as vile as are the things of this world, affording occasion of sinning. whence is understood the gravity of sin. I remember however that she said to me, that thus she had spoken to God: O my God, whether to be saved or to be damned I am, great pains to You I have brought. O my Lord, never had I comprehended that so much offended You sins; but if I had known it, so easily I would not have sinned. But neither in this to my words attend, Lord; for I know that I would do worse than ever before, did not Your most pious hand restrain me. O sweet and benign Jesus, my lover! sweet and benign are all those pains, which to me You speak.

§. II. Christ's sorrows from the pains of His Mother, Magdalen, and the Disciples.

[8] Then the loving and blessed Jesus subjoined: Hearken, hearken, my daughter, From the sorrows of His mother Jesus thus suffered, not yet so speak: for there remain still pains most bitter to be told; first that sharp sword, which transfixed and passed through my soul; the sorrow, I say, of my pure and innocent mother, who on account of my death and passion was to be so greatly afflicted, as no other person ever else. Deservedly therefore in paradise we exalted her and sublimated her above all angelic and human creatures; for by how much more some creature in this world, on account of my love, in itself is afflicted, depressed, and annihilated; by so much the more in the kingdom of the heavens, by the rule of divine justice, is it exalted, glorified, and rewarded. But because no mother or other person was so much straitened, as my most sweet and most afflicted mother; therefore never in paradise on high will any person be like her: and just as she on earth was another self of mine by pain and passion, so is she in heaven another self of mine by power and glory; excepting namely the Divinity, of which she is not partaker, but only we three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Know moreover that in all that respect and manner, in which I God incarnate grieved and suffered, also grieved and suffered my most holy mother; except that I suffered in a more perfect and higher degree, because I was Man-God, but she a pure and simple creature. But her sorrow so much me afflicted, that, if it had pleased the eternal Father, so that He would have wished to take them all upon Himself. a great solace to me it would have been, if, all her sorrows into me being translated, she could have remained without sorrow; for that I would have held for the highest refreshment. But because my incomprehensible martyrdom had to be without any consolation, therefore such a grace to me was not granted, although her often out of filial reverence with many tears I asked for. Then said that soul, whose heart seemed to fail from compassion toward the glorious Virgin mother, that placed in a certain perplexity of mind, nothing else could she utter than these words: O Mother of God, no more shouldst thou be called Mother of God, but mother of sorrows, mother of pains, mother of afflictions, which neither can be numbered nor comprehended by thought. He is a certain hell, and thou art another him; what therefore else can I name thee than mother of sorrows, and say also thou to be another hell? No more, no more, no more; my Lord, do not any more to me speak of the sorrows of Your blessed Mother, because I cannot longer bear it: these suffice me for all the rest of life, even if it still were of a thousand years.

[9] He therefore being silent on such matter, because He saw her to be incapable, The same had compassion on Mary Magdalen began to say to her: How much moreover do you believe me to have suffered from the affliction of my beloved and blessed disciple, Mary Magdalen? Never that can you grasp, nor any person: because from her and from me had their beginning and foundation all holy and spiritual loves, which were ever or will be. But because the perfection of me her loving Master, and the love and goodness of her the beloved Disciple, could not be comprehended except by me: something indeed could grasp someone, having experience of holy and spiritual love, active as well as passive: but to its equality to attain no one can: for never were found such a Master and such a Disciple: nor was Magdalen any other ever or will be except her alone. loving and grieving above all others, Let each one say what he will; after my Mother no one more my death and passion grieved than she: but if another had grieved more than she, to her after my resurrection I would have sooner appeared than to her: but because after my blessed Mother she was afflicted above all, therefore after my most sweet Mother first she deserved to be consoled.

[10] I caused that John my most beloved, in that sweet slumber, in that bitter and desired supper, upon my most sacred breast, clearly saw my resurrection, and the most ample fruit of souls to follow from my passion and death: even above John although however from thence he took more sorrow and pain, than any other of the disciples, do not believe that he surpassed my loving Magdalen, who was not capable of high and sublime things as John. For he, although he could have, yet would not have hindered my passion and death, on account of the knowledge of so great a good which through it and from it was to follow: but my beloved Magdalen not so, who when she saw me expired on the cross, believed heaven and earth to have failed her, because in me was all her hope, all love, peace, and consolation: and therefore without measure was her sorrow. Which understanding I, cordially her bore within my soul:

and on her part I experienced all that tenderness, which from holy and spiritual love can be perceived, because from her inmost heart she loved me.

[11] If you desire the aforesaid better to understand, observe, that the Disciples, and the other disciples, as not yet estranged from every other thing, like that sinful woman, after my death returned to the nets forsaken: but she did not return to the proud and disordered life; and burning wholly, and with holy desire inflamed, whom alive she did not hope to see, she sought dead; knowing that nothing could any more be a delight to her except her dear Master, whether alive or dead. But how true this was, understand, considering that, to find me dead, she despised and dismissed the society and presence of my most sweet Mother, than which nothing after me could be conceived more lovable, desirable, and delightful, the sweet addresses of the Angels for nothing she held; nor in the sight or presence of any other could she rest, except in me alone, her beloved God. Finally so great was the sorrow of that my blessed and dear Disciple, that often she would have fallen dead, had not I by my supreme power sustained her: but that sorrow continually dwelt in my heart. Much on account of her was I troubled and afflicted: so that she would have died, had He Himself not kept her, but I did not permit her thus to fail, because to make her I wished what afterward I made, namely the Apostle of the Apostles, that she might evangelize the truth of my triumphal resurrection, just as they afterward evangelized to the whole world: I wished to make her and made her a mirror, example, and norm of all blessed and contemplative life, in that thirty-three years' solitude, in which unknown to the world she lived; where she tasted and felt the ultimate effects of love, which in this mortal life can be tasted and felt. And these things concerning the sorrows which on account of my beloved Disciple I sustained.

[12] He felt also the disciples' desolation the more grievously, Another mental sorrow, which transfixed my soul, was the fixed and continual memory of that sacred college of my Apostles, the columns of heaven, the foundations of my Church militant, the sheep without a shepherd, which I wished and knew were to be dispersed: and I saw all the torments and martyrdoms, which for my cause and love they had to suffer. Know moreover that no father ever sons, brother brothers, master disciples so tenderly and cordially loved, as I my most beloved brothers and disciples, the blessed Apostles. For although all creatures I always loved with an infinite love; nevertheless conceive easily you can, that this love was more particular and singular toward those with whom corporeally I conversed. Therefore since on their account a particular also and singular sorrow I felt, the more He loved them, on their account rather than my own I said that bitter and mournful word, "Sad is my soul even unto death," on account of the tenderness of affection which I felt leaving them without me, their head, father, faithful master: and so great anguish to me thence was born, that such corporeal separation to me seemed another death. Wherefore he who well considered the words of that last discourse which I had to them, however hard, would not contain his tears: because each word, full of compassion, was poured forth from the bottom of the heart, which to me seemed for love of them in my very breast to burst.

[13] I saw moreover, how on account of my love one had to be crucified, another beheaded, another flayed, and that they would suffer many things for Him. all finally by various martyrdoms to end their life. Hence understand how great a pain to me it was. For consider, if you had a person who holily loved you, to whom on your account were said injurious words or another injury were done, how much and how vehemently to you it would grieve, that to him who so greatly loved you, you were the cause of such sorrow; when to him on the contrary you would wish always to come on your account every good, honor and consolation. But I, daughter, to them was the cause, I do not say of words injurious, but even of death; nor to one of them only, but to all. Wherefore the sorrow, which on account of them I bore, I cannot by another to you example explain: enough is said, that you may have compassion on me.

§. III. Christ's sorrows from the ingratitude of Judas, the Jewish people, and all creatures. A particular sorrow likewise in the garden.

[14] Another heartfelt sorrow, which continually afflicted me; and was like a knife, with three venomed and most sharp points furnished, To these was added the knowledge of manifold ingratitude, for striking my heart assiduously and transfixing it, was the impiety and ingratitude of my beloved disciple Judas, and the same my wicked and most evil betrayer; the hardness, perversity and ingratitude of the Jewish people chosen by me; the malign blindness and ingratitude of all however many were, are or will be creatures. First therefore consider how great was the ingratitude of Judas, whom I chose into the number of the Apostles, to whom his sins all I pardoned, whom I made a worker of miracles, and dispenser of all offered to me; first of Judas, to whom finally I always showed signs of singular love, that him from the conceived iniquity I might remove; but the more ample toward him I indicated affection, the worse he thought against me. Now moreover consider, with how great bitterness those and many other things in my heart were turned. But when I came to that lamentable and humble act of washing for him and the others all together the feet, then my heart was poured out into heartfelt lamentation, and from my eyes a fount of tears burst forth upon his defiled feet, because I said in my heart: O Judas, what have I done to you, that me so cruelly you betray? O unfortunate disciple! while Christ washed his feet, is not this the last sign of love, which to you I can exhibit? O son of perdition, for what cause thus do you depart from your father and master? O Judas, if you desire thirty pieces of silver, why do you not go to your mother and mine, who gladly herself will sell, that you and me she may free from peril and death? Ah Judas, ungrateful disciple, I with so great love for you wash and kiss your feet, but you with the execution of treason to me my face will kiss. O what an evil return you will render me, dear and beloved son, lamenting your perdition, rather than my own passion and death, because for this alone I came.

[15] These and like words said to him my heart, meanwhile while with copious tears his feet I bathed: but he nothing of these things noticed, because before him I was kneeling with bent head, the tears meanwhile flowing; as in such act of washing others are wont; and because, while thus I was bent, the multitude of my long hairs my mournful and tearful face covered. But my beloved John, to whom all the mysteries of my passion in that sorrowful supper I had revealed, noticed and observed every act of mine, and singly my lamentation upon the feet of Judas; and he knew and understood, that from the tenderness of love proceeded those my tears. Just as when some father, having an only son, to him already now dying performs some service, which John observing, and says in his heart; Farewell, son, this is the last that to you ever I shall serve; so I altogether did to Judas, when to him I kissed and washed the feet. But when them more gently I touched and to my blessed mouth pressed, each of my gestures and acts noticing that most keen-eyed Eagle, from stupor and admiration was to a dead than to a living one more like.

[16] And because that most humble soul had reclined in the last place, so that to him last I should come, when I now to him to wash the feet bent, no longer himself could he contain; and sitting himself, my neck, bent on the ground, with both arms he clasped, and me thus somewhat holding, as if a swoon he suffered, and pouring most copious tears, he inwardly had compassion on his master. with his heart's voice, his tongue silent, to me he spoke and said: O dear Master, Brother, my God and Lord, how did the spirit suffice you to wash and kiss with your most sacred mouth the cursed feet of that dog the betrayer? O my Jesus, dear Master, a very perfect example you leave us; but we wretches, what shall we do without you, who are all our good? what will your unhappy mother do, when to her this your humility I shall narrate? And now, that to me you make my heart be cleft, you wish to wash for me my foul feet and them to kiss with your sweet and mellifluous mouth. O my God the new signs of your love to me are the cause of greater sorrow. And these and many other like things with tenderness saying, which a stony heart also would have softened, his unshod feet with the greatest shame to me to be washed he held out. And these things I have said, that some notion to you I might instill of my heartfelt sorrow, which I bore on account of the ingratitude and impiety of the betrayer Judas; to whom the greater I bore love and the more signs of affection I showed, the more me grievously afflicted his most evil ingratitude.

[17] What shall I say of the ungrateful and obstinate people of the Jews, At length the ingratitude of the Jews being weighed, how greatly it pricked me and straitened their ineffable ingratitude? I had made them a people holy, a people Sacerdotal; I had chosen them to me for a portion and inheritance above all the peoples of the earth, I had led them across with dry feet through the Red Sea, freeing them from the Egyptian servitude and the hands of Pharaoh, I had overshadowed them in a pillar by day, and a light to them I had been by night; I had given them the law on Mount Sinai and the Evangelical law with my own mouth I had announced; so many victories over enemies I had granted; and human flesh from them taking, all the time of my life with them I had conversed; I showed them the very way of heaven, and at the same time many benefits I conferred, and the sorrow of Christ born from this, illuminating the blind, giving to the deaf hearing, walking to the lame, and finally to the dead life: when therefore I understood that with so great fury they cried out and demanded, that Barabbas be released, and I to the cross and death be delivered, it seemed to me my heart would burst asunder. He does not know, daughter, except who has experienced it, what it is sorrow and every evil to receive from him to whom one has done every good. How also hard it is, that against a just and innocent one it be cried out by all, Let him die, let him die: but on the contrary of him who is known to have a thousand deaths deserved, the whole people cry out, Let him be saved, let him be saved. These things indeed are such that thought rather they ought than spoken.

[18] Then said that holy soul, that she felt in her heart so great humility, that truly she confessed to God and to all His heavenly Court, Baptista comparing herself with Judas, that she had received from God more benefits and gifts than Judas, more

than that whole ungrateful people together, and meanwhile (which is worse) with greater ingratitude Him had betrayed than Judas; more wantonly crucified Him and slain than that ungrateful people: and in this holy confession and consideration, as a great sinner, she mentally subjected her soul to the feet of the soul of the damned Judas; and considering herself to be in that very abyssal place of his, from there, as if truly placed therein, she gave voices, cries and lamentations to her beloved, but by her offended God, saying to Him: O most benign my Lord! how shall I be able worthy thanks to You to give, that You sustain me, who have done a thousand times worse than Judas? You made him Your disciple, but me You made a daughter and spouse; to him You pardoned his sins, to me also mine by Your piety and grace You remitted. You gave him the dispensation of temporal things, to me ungrateful from Your spiritual treasures so many favors, so many gifts You conferred. You gave him the power of doing miracles, but me You made more than a miracle to do, of my own accord leading me to the place where now I am. O my Jesus, I sold and betrayed You, not once, like him; but many times without number. O my God, I know that worse I have betrayed You than with a kiss Judas, when under the appearance of spirituality I dismissed You and bound myself with the bonds of death.

[19] But if that people's ingratitude so grave and so troublesome to You was: how must have affected You mine, and of the Jews, who worse to You did, than he; and yet more benefits from You I received than he. O most sweet my Lord! from my whole heart thanks to You I give, that You have led me out of the Egyptian servitude of the demon and of sins, from the hands of that cruel Pharaoh, who at his pleasure dominated my poor little soul. You led me through the midst of the waters of worldly vanity with dry feet, and I passed by Your grace to the solitude in the desert of Religion, where often and often You fed me with most sweet and savory manna, which to me, as to every desirable savor, seemed to contain whatever delightfulness, She gives thanks to Christ for His benefits, because all worldly delights seemed to me insipid before Your least spiritual consolation. Thanks I give You, my Lord, because to me often You gave the law, with Your own most sweet and holy mouth, on the mount Sinai of holy prayer, written with the finger of Your mercy on the stony tablets of my most hard and rebellious heart. Thanks I give You, most benign Redeemer, for all the victories, which You gave me against the enemies, that is the capital vices. As often as I overcame them, from You and through You, Lord, came to me the victory: as often as I was conquered or am conquered, that from my malice proceeds and the scant love, and she imputes to herself His whole passion, which I have toward You, my God. You my Lord, by grace were born in my soul; and to me You showed the way and light of truth, by which I should come to You the true paradise. Amid the darkness and gloom of the world You gave me to see, speak, hear, walk; because truly to all spiritual things I was blind, deaf, mute, paralytic. And what more, O God, could You have done for me which You have not done? I was altogether dead, and in You the true life I was resuscitated, who give life to every creature living from You. But who crucified You? I. Who at the column scourged You? I. Who with thorns crowned You? I. Who with gall and vinegar gave You drink? I.

[20] Therefore running through each mystery of the suffering Jesus, and feeling grace given to her by God, she concluded with these words: and she understands and bewails the ingratitude of all creatures. O my Lord, do You know why to You I say, that all those things I have done? because I saw a light in Your light, and I knew that more You afflicted the mortal sins which I committed, than You then afflicted those who such pains to You corporeally inflicted. Wherefore, my God, it is not necessary that henceforth to me You say, how great a pain to You brought the ingratitude of all human creatures, because You have given me the grace of understanding my ingratitude at least in some part. Now I consider by the grace of Your light, how much greater is the ingratitude of all creatures, and in this consideration fails my spirit, and I am astonished at so great charity and patience, which You used toward us most ungrateful creatures, for whom never, never You ceased to provide in all necessities spiritual and corporeal. But just as they cannot be understood, much less explained, the innumerable things, which You did in heaven and on earth, in water and in all elements, for those ungrateful creatures; so cannot be understood or explained my great ingratitudes. Therefore, my God, I confess and believe, that You alone can them understand and comprehend, and can know how great and of what kind was that most bitter arrow of our ingratitude, which so often transfixed Your heart, as often as some human creature was, is, or will be, which that has used against You. For this truth in my and all creatures' name I acknowledge and confess, that just as no moment, hour, day or month passes, in which we do not use Your benefits; so let none pass without manifold, nay infinite, our ingratitude: which I believe and feel to be among the more atrocious sorrows, with which was afflicted Your soul, my Jesus. Finished are these few words of the mental sorrows of Jesus Christ, to His praise, on Friday September 12, in the year of the Lord 1488.

[21] She notes that these sorrows were more intense in the garden, What here below I write, was revealed to me, thinking of the mystery of Jesus Christ praying in the garden, where He sweated blood: namely that just as the sun, when it is in Leo, because it is in its own house, more exerts its strength, than in all the rest of the year; so also Christ the blessed in that prayer, which He made in the garden, more vehemently felt His mental sorrows, than in all the course of His life of thirty-three years: for then the sun of His sorrows was in Leo, that is its own house or in the highest. But I say to me it was revealed, that so great is the difference between him [who is exercised in recollecting the mental sorrows of Christ, and another] who stays in the bare humanity tormented, as great as is between honey or balsam, which is in a vessel, and that little liquor, by which exteriorly the same vessel is moistened. Therefore he who desires to taste Christ's Passion, ought not always to be occupied licking the outermost rim of the vessel, that is the wounds and blood, to that most sacred vessel of the humanity of Christ adhering; for never in such manner will be satiated he who such food hungers for: but if he desires to be satiated with it, let him enter into the vessel itself, and that it be more usefully considered than the corporeal pains. that is into the heart or sea of Christ the blessed, and there more than he will wish he shall be satiated. This moreover was revealed to me, but I would not put it here where I wrote the mental sorrows of Christ, lest I take away devotion from him who in the bare humanity contemplated delights: because not every intellect is fit for sailing in such a sea, especially we women, whose capacity is scant, and to whom the aforesaid sorrows I directed. Yet it is true, that God renders him capable, who Him in truth desires and seeks. O my Father, how much sorrow to me you believe has come, writing these things! Truly as the sea is my contrition. Thus far she, from whose last words we understand, that the last article was added in the year 1491, three years after the former had been written, when the same Baptista transcribed them, to be sent to her spiritual Father, together with the history of her life.

SUPPLEMENT

From the Italian of Matthaeus Pascuccius.

Baptista Verana, of the Order of the poor Sisters of St. Clare, of Camerino in Umbria (B.)

FROM THE ITALIAN OF PASCUCCIUS

CHAPTER I.

A Chronological Recapitulation of her Life in the world and in religion up to the end of the XV century.

In the year 1458, on April 9, was born Camilla de Varanis, as she says at no. 4, The order of her life led in the world, about ten years old she was, when she received the first little fires of more tender devotion toward the Lord's Passion. Then in the year 1477, a general Confession being made at the Paschal time, when she was more vehemently goaded to take up the religious state, long with herself and with God having struggled, she seems at last to have given her hands to Him calling in the summer of the aforesaid year; for from this point can be numbered those ten years, in which at no. 47 she says the pit of the abyss had been closed, which was opened in October of the year 1487. Meanwhile after that victory over herself, and the purpose of entering Religion signified to her father about Easter of the year 1478, struggling against him she endured him for two and a half years, as she says at nos. 27 and 28; for these take their end in November of the year 1481. After that same victory heaped by God with manifold graces, and kindled with a great desire of suffering much for her beloved, she fell into a most grievous sickness, whence the infirmity left to her for almost thirteen years she says she held at no. 24, writing in the beginning of the year 1491. But this sickness was held lethal for the first seven months, indicated at no. 25: and these have their end before August of the aforesaid year 1478, when about the feast of the Transfiguration desirous of seeing her Christ, she began to ask this grace at no. 26, and after six months of ardent prayer obtained it, namely in the month of February of the year 1479.

[2] In the year 1481 on November 14, Jacobillus witnessing, and in Religion up to the year 1487 having put on the habit of St. Clare at Urbino, with her name changed she began to be called Baptista; and five months before her Profession she writes the letter dictated to her by Christ, as you have at no. 65. But her Profession itself she made in the year 1482 or rather '83. For it seems that on account of arisen difficulties, beyond a year the probation was drawn out; and when her father Julius about founding a monastery at Camerino consulted in that same year '83; that it might under regular observance be instituted, so much had to be labored by Baptista in that same year, that it at no. 35 she calls the year of her tribulation, which she says took its end at Camerino, after a new general Confession made there to B. Peter of Moliano, then Vicar of the Province. But she had come to Camerino with her companions and there was enclosed in the year 1484 on January 4. Thence with new favors from God beginning to be refreshed, first conspicuous to herself she had St. Clare, no. 37; then for two months she saw herself held at the feet of the Crucified, no. 39; with the Seraphic fire she burned for three months, no. 40; and according to no. 45 she communicates almost every Sunday for two years, that is until the summer of the year

1487, when she was bidden to write the treatise on the Mental sorrows of Christ; or (as she herself says at no. 54) more than two years after her return into her fatherland.

[3] That treatise finished, when she enjoyed deep peace, for her greater testing God permitted, and again up to the year 1491, that in the month of August of that same year 1487 she be deceived by demons, just as she confesses at no. 47: but on October 11 the same began to afflict her with most grievous temptations, which she bore hidden for almost three years, as she says at no. 2; until after the death of B. Peter of Moliano, who died on July 25 of the year 1490, she soon committed herself wholly to him to whom afterward her Life she wrote in the following month of March, six months after he had departed from Camerino, as she says at no. 50: but she had hoped when to him she trusted herself (as in the same place she says) some truce from the capital fight of two years; namely for completing the third year of that same fight a two-month space almost still was wanting. Meanwhile while she seeks a consoler and finds none, she began many of those things which she had begun at Urbino to write down, as she confesses in the letter seen by Waddingus, and given six months after the death of Moliano in the month of January, in the year 1491; which the same we found written after those spiritual admonitions, when she wrote about her Life. of which in the Preface at no. 12 from Cimarella we treated. She began also in that same year about the beginning of February to be more vehemently impelled to write the aforesaid history of her life: whose protocol she finished on March 3; and the second of the letters added to it, dated the 13th of the same month. But longer waiting not being able to bear, her mind, the secret of the grave matter long suppressed, the things which she had written, to be delivered into the hands of the one present, she determined to send to the absent one by a Letter, signed on March 20. But this very disquiet, which the aforesaid letters attest, even after the mind was somewhat unburdened by that writing of her secrets, sufficiently indicates, afterward still tempted until October of the year 1492, that the consolation that being completed perceived (as she asserts at no. 48) was not long-lasting; but only of a few days; nay (if I rightly understand her words elsewhere) the tempest of the diabolical sea, in which she was immersed, lasted a continuous five-year period; and so it first ceased after the middle of October of the year 1492.

[4] The same, wishing, as Pascuccius says on p. 125, to explain to a certain spiritual son of hers, how God sometimes takes up to be tested those, whom to eternal glory He has preordained, an example in herself set forth, as if of a third person speaking, as she indicated, writing to her disciple, relating the tribulations which she suffered for five years continuous. Thus far he in his own words, as far as concerns the number of years taken from the more prolix letter; from which then in the very words of the Blessed a part he adduces, indicating to us what we intend, namely that she treats of a tempest, not of any kind, but a diabolical one: but these things thus sound rendered into Latin. Therefore that person was compelled again and again to cry to the Lord, night and day asking help and saying, God, attend to my help; Lord, hasten to help me. To You I have lifted up my eyes, whence will come help to me? My help is from the Lord. But those voices, the witnesses of her inner straits, that afflicted soul poured forth, always iterating; O God, help me. how amid those straits she conducted herself. O God do not forsake me in this last extremity. O God, strength supply, because my powers fail: I cannot longer endure: hold out Your helping hand. O God, You lie asleep within the ship of my soul, and the tempest of the diabolical sea submerges me. Yet, Lord Jesus, without You no tranquility can come. And so through all the space of so perilous a time she rendered her mind immovable, frequently thinking of God, who in the time of war does not depart from her. Take care therefore also you, devout son of Jesus, that in your blessed soul such a good habit be rooted, and you will experience the wonders of God within the shortest time. Say then with the Prophet: I foresaw the Lord in my sight always. And again: The meditation of my heart in Your sight always. Other such places of sacred Scripture you will find many, in which the Prophets and other holy men profess, that they had a fixed memory in God.

[5] When such things our Blessed wrote to him, her spiritual son (whom sometimes also she names Father, But she wrote in the year 1499. and altogether eighteen years, whether in a private or a prelatical condition, just as she herself at the end of her more prolix instruction testifies: hence already was passing the penultimate year of the XV century: before which year since nothing is suggested which to external actions pertains; it pleases from Pascuccius to gather the principal fragments of that instruction, in which she herself of herself as of a third person declares her spiritual life's excellence, just as it through the various heads of virtues the author divides. But I will indicate at the margin the numbers of the page, where the individual places will be able in their original Italian to be found; since the whole context of that instruction we have not yet chanced to see, and the whole into this work to insert perhaps would be less expedient. I will begin from humility, which is the foundation of all the other virtues.

CHAPTER II.

The Blessed's humility and sincere love toward God: fervor of spirit, and right intention expressed in her own words.

p. 110.

[6] That blessed soul so jealous was of the divine honor, and so much took heed lest anything of it she should steal for herself, Reputing herself unworthy of God's gifts, and so with profound humility was divinely endowed; that when she esteemed, the graces of her Lord in a place too vile to be reposed were held, such namely as she believed herself, most ungrateful and a sinner; when also she believed it could turn to the greatest shame and signal disgrace of her Spouse, that so great a heap of virtues and spiritual gifts He had conferred upon her; these she concealed as far as she could, with anxious silence veiling all things. Often under some other pretext she withdrew herself from the pious reading which was done in common, fearing lest meanwhile something should happen to her, whence the Sisters or Brothers should know some grace divinely done to her. For the same cause also sometimes she admonished the reader, not to continue the reading of the Lord's Passion, while the Sisters were eating; she strives to keep these things hidden: for, she said, they cannot conveniently enough swallow food, while they bend their mind to that loving history. But this she admonished, fearing lest one should observe her manner of eating under such reading, or some effect of inner affection meanwhile observe in her: and for the same cause more rarely to the common refectory she came, with a double indeed reason (which openly appeared) excused, yet more from that than any other respect.

[7] This I tell you, my Father and Son in Christ Jesus, that from her you may learn to conceal the spirit and graces granted to you, until God shall otherwise have ordained. O blessed that soul, which of all her workings wishes no inspector except her Creator! O how many ditches on that account this your Mother leaped over! how many unjust contumelies, how many judgments false, rash and presumptuous she sustained! how often for that which was worthy of praise before God and men, which to her was a cause of suffering many things revilings and reprehensions she bore before God and men, Sisters and Brothers. But to such blows she stood always firm, constant and immovable, like a most solid tower in her purpose, with undoubting confidence, that her most faithful spouse Jesus Christ in the opportune time for her a sharp sword in His hand would take; and behind His divine shoulders would cast the shield, with which He covered that soul for many years, to test her patience and faith: which in turn in various ways and means manifested the rectitude of her heart, seeking solely to please God, despising whatever human judgments, and for the keeping of His honor caring not a whit for whatever her own confusion. to her who looked to nothing except God. Wherefore, my Son reverend, beware lest you steal anything from God: for I do not wish you to have a heart fixed on any earthly thing: because that would be to your Mother a great disgrace, but to you a greater loss. Show yourself therefore always most faithful, fear, love, honor your God; because whatever He willed He has done in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all abysses.

p. 168

[8] That blessed soul lived also in such humility and fear, She asks the same gifts to be transferred to one worthier than herself, that with her whole heart she prayed God, that He would deign all the graces and favors which on her He wished to confer to transfer into any other creature, better pleasing Him, whence more honor to Him than from herself would redound. For she could not persuade herself that there was found in the world some creature, which more uselessly the divine benefits possessed than herself. But if she had concerning this by God been heard, the greatest thence she would have perceived solace; because God's honor, not her own utility she sought. To such a soul I think is to be said that Evangelical word, Well done, good servant, because in few things you were faithful, over many I will set you; enter into the joy of your Lord: such a one I think that of the Apocalypse regards, Be faithful unto death; as if it wished to say, It does not suffice to be faithful for ten or twenty years; but it behooves to be faithful unto death: for there follows, and she commends fidelity toward God, And I will give you the crown of life. Faithful is that servant, who not only in the time of his life, but also at the end of it renders to the Lord, what to him out of His benignity had been given to be kept. Beware therefore, my Son reverend, lest you become a thief: for God would make you hang by the neck, nor would He care that you were a Priest or a Doctor, no whit inferior to others set in dignity. For of this kind it is said: Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to Him with trembling.

[9] not wishing to be loved by others Your Mother, lest she steal love from God, as long as in Religion she lived up to the present hour, this always took care, lest to anyone she give herself, nor any person give herself to her: but a certain general reason she held, by which she took heed, lest by excess she be loved. But since she herself is much lovable, therefore she avoided every occasion of loving anyone, or of provoking anyone's love toward herself: and when from time to time she noticed herself by some one more than others to be loved; the most grievous thence sorrow drawing, she prayed God with fervent tears, that in that person such affection He would temper or extinguish: sometimes she strove for the same to find another person better than herself, that to that importunate love she might withdraw herself. But all this she did, lest from God she should steal the love of her,

who would believe her to deserve above others to be loved. Finally in truth I affirm to you, lest anything be withdrawn from God. that never any creature so much of pleasure, joy, and solace drew when she was loved; as she herself receives of sorrow, displeasure, and weariness from anyone's love toward herself, not regulated according to God, much and bitterly therefore wont to lament. Thus far the aforesaid instruction in Pascuccius: in whom on the same subject also thus he is found to have written.

p. 169

[10] A wonderful revelation, which I wish that from God you ask, is, that He make you know, what you are, She bids that the knowledge of oneself alone be sought, how much you can, how much you know, how much you deserve: for without this revelation no one ever attains perfection. This secret is not learned from another, but is reserved in the most sacred breast of Christ Jesus: nor to many does He manifest it, but to few; nor to all these equally, but to one more, to another less, according to the perfection to which each of them ought to come. But I believe that this secret cannot fully be comprehended in this dark life, but in the other; where fully and in truth we shall know our vileness, fragility, and folly. And hence is born humility of heart, not indeed appearing to human eyes, but pleasing and acceptable to the divine sight. That your spiritual Mother never desired another revelation, than to know God and herself. But the Dispenser of graces, liberal, courteous, and benign, both many others to her granted, and that one altogether did not deny.

[11] such as she herself divinely received Many years it is, that she, in her mental prayer before the image of the Crucified, of this truth the light divinely perceived, that never would she come to perfection, unless besides the divine Trinity she should know another trinity. For just as, that she might be a Christian, she had to believe and confess one most holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; so, that she might become perfect, it behoved her to confess and believe this triple truth, namely that she was nothing other than nothing, wholly foolish, and wholly odious to God. O most blessed Trinity, neither known, nor esteemed, nor believed by the ignorant in spiritual things. O my God! she said, rather deprive me of corporeal life, than take from me the knowledge of so lovable a truth; plainly necessary for one tending to perfection: and my bones rather into the minutest dust reduce, than that this teaching of eternal Wisdom ever depart from my soul. I cannot vainly glory of power, because my power is nothing: I cannot lift myself up on account of wisdom, because nothing in me is found except folly: nor finally ought I to presume that I deserve anything in the sight of God, since I am a vile creature and odious, nay more odious than hatred itself. For he who commits sin is the servant of sin; and since sin is nothing, and I have committed it, I have come to be so much less than nothing, as a servant is less than a master. But that sin is nothing, can be gathered from this its property, that it annihilates the image of God in us, of whom St. John says, "All things were made through Him."

[12] Hence it is, that while the soul feels itself able to work well, it knows that the person of the eternal Father gives strength to the nothingness of its power; when it sees itself able to speak and instruct others in the spiritual life, because otherwise no one can refund all things into God. soon also it comprehends that the person of the Son has made wise its folly; when it understands that it, which is wholly odious, loves and in turn is loved, it understands that the person of the Holy Spirit by His most sweet love has loved and lovable has made its odiousness: therefore into God refunding all its good, the soul of it remains free from vainglory, from swollen elation, and from the foul smoke of pride, which the Angel cast out of Paradise: whence with the Prophet it can sing and say, "Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are lifted up my eyes," etc. The same holds as irrefragable this truth, that if any spiritual soul does not procure in itself to have that light, that knowledge, that necessary revelation; never will it be able truly and from the heart to humble itself to God or to creatures.

[13] Hence she reveres even the Novice Sisters as Angels, Know that in exterior actions she is very reverent and a capital enemy of putrid hypocrisy: nevertheless not only secretly, but often also openly she kisses the threshold of the church, which the Sisters with their feet tread; reputing herself most unworthy to be one who her sinful mouth there should place, where they place their virginal and holy feet: holy, I say, because although perhaps such they are not, yet they seem to her such. And these things I write to you with weeping eyes; because I find myself by your devotion and prayer compelled to that poor little one's secrets to be revealed to you, which for many years were concealed. Now moreover, O blessed soul, consider that she doing this, much more gladly to all would do reverence, were she not by respect of her dignity or office hindered: and therefore while to any other she exhibits reverence, in turn to the same reverently she inclines herself; nor ever even by thinking does it occur to her that she should say, I am more than that one. Often also to the least of the Sisters reverence first she does, exteriorly indeed as if playful and with smiling face; but interiorly with her whole heart, considering them to be spouses of Christ.

[14] Take care therefore, dear soul, with all zeal to be humble from the heart, from the heart of Jesus drawing this and other virtues benign, pious, and meek, looking as into a mirror into the most pure heart of sweet Jesus; and conforming yourself to Him, if His most sweet familiarity and honorable friendship you covet. From that heart, from that most sacred breast your Mother drew all the adornment she has, as much exterior as interior. The meek breast of that loving Jesus was her school: in this alone she is taught, because for you she has studied. There nothing else is read than truth, meekness, commiseration, sweetness, joyfulness of heart, and jubilation of conscience: nothing else there is found than love and charity, love toward God and charity toward neighbor. O divine heart! I cannot omit but I name you, because she saw herself written in you in letters golden, conspicuous, and beautiful. Hither enter, O soul, if you desire quickly to be perfect. This is the way short, hidden, secure, and infallible, by which walks and walked your Mother: follow it therefore, because conformity generates and conserves love. Turn yourself to God, and say to Him: This revelation from You I ask, my Lord, because without it I cannot be perfect; since however to my dignity and Sacerdotal excellence necessary perfection is. Pray Him from the heart, Reverend one, because certainly it to you He will give: since He is so good, so liberal, so full of all grace and gift, that even unasked He always bestows, of the fullness of His goodness on the just and sinners. Therefore the mercies of the Lord forever will sing that soul, which you love.

[15] I wish, blessed soul, that you follow this my admonition, namely that you serve God, She teaches that God is to be served out of pure love. not as a bondservant, on account of fear of temporal punishment or of eternal torments; not as a sinner, on account of any reward; but as a daughter, render to God love for love, blood for blood, death for death. These are the short ways, hidden, and secure; not appearing to human eyes, but known and admirable to the sight of God, to whom open and naked are all things. But what I say consists in affection: which if it is pure, before our soul begins to advance, and before having advanced it knocks at the door of divine mercy, there is opened to it the immense treasure of that wisdom; and before it has asked, it receives even more than it wishes, nay more than it itself knows to ask, from this that to it by the incomprehensible goodness of God it is offered. Liberal and most generous is our merciful and most loving Jesus crucified: to whom much please those who conform themselves to Him, and open a heart liberal, magnanimous and munificent, that it perfectly may possess the King of eternal life. But in a heart narrow, vile, and rustic, never dwells nor will dwell God: because great and exalted He is above all gods. Dismiss, dismiss, most beloved soul, this deceitful and deceiving world, not on account of hell as a bondservant, nor on account of hope of reward as a sinner; but as a daughter and spouse lovable, on account of the love of your crucified Jesus, and Him with your arms, that is the affection of your heart and great love embrace. Thus did your beloved Mother, who grieved for that which she did not have, and for that which she was not, that so much the more she might dismiss for the love of her crucified Jesus, whom she loved with a pure and ardent heart and intention perfect.

p. 153

[16] But since the soul, which thither desires to come, ought to keep its mind fixed in God, and in Him continually the mind, as much as to it by its fragility and divine grace shall be granted; there is nothing that more usefully it can, or more necessarily ought to do the servant of almighty God. This thought, by which one keeps the mind fixed on God, sanctifies it, kindles the affection, and illuminates the intellect, and is as a bridle by which it be preserved from venial sins. It is the broom of vices and the preparation for prayer, to which otherwise many come all day, and never think of God. They feel themselves thence empty, dry, indisposed, and full of mental weariness; and therefore they say; I do not have the gift of prayer: which however is not so, but all this to them happens, because they have not directed their thought to God, that they might prepare a seat for mental prayer. But those who think, how that as well as possible they may do, without delay come to the desired end: for such a soul has prepared a place for the Lord, and receives the grace of tears, compunction, taste, and devotion. This method use spiritual and wise Religious in this world, because this is the best disposition for prayer, and eternally will pursue in the heavenly glory. This sign is above all others infallible, for knowing whether one is written in the book of life: for frequent thought of God compels His supreme goodness often to remember us. But hold for certain, that the more frequently you shall remember Him, the also more often He will renew the memory of you. This to your Mother was demonstrated by the Holy Spirit, that her soul might more be kindled to that Angelic exercise: and know that she has the grace often of invoking in her heart the Redeemer, and Him interiorly to remember.

p. 154

[17] Many strive to come to cleanness of heart by a way very long and laborious, by watching, fasting, and by the shortest way to cleanness of heart, scourging themselves, lying on the ground, cold or heat tolerating, and the body afflicting; because they know that by interior purity is possessed consummate perfection. But this your Mother holds for a most explored truth, that frequent thought of God makes so great a good to be acquired more quickly and better, and less laboriously. Foolish would he be who, able to come to Rome in one day, and that by a level and most easy way; on that journey wished to spend four days, and that through paths far roughest. Choose, choose that way short, sweet, pleasant, secure, and hidden, which may lead you to paradise, no one observing. Embrace Christ, and be certain you will be enriched, no one knowing where you transact your business. I finish and say, that he who often of God thinks, God remains in him: and he who Him by grace possesses, what could be wanting to him? Take care therefore that the object of your thoughts and intentions be God, nor fix yourself on a creature. For example, if you wish to exercise charity toward your neighbor, good indeed it is, to have him as an object of mind as a neighbor; but much better, represented as a member of Christ: and by how much one is nobler than another and more excellent, by so much also is more meritorious one than another.

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[18] Never fall asleep in the sleep of sloth and negligence: but know that the Kingdom of the heavens suffers violence, and the violent seize it. She commends spiritual vigilance That your Mother says, that this Evangelical word was by the Holy Spirit impressed on her heart so markedly, that sleeping and waking she has it always anxious. I wish to say, that never in holy Religion let yourself be occupied by that sleep, by which many are held: who having entered there forget their first fervor; and whatever good they work, they do without any consideration mental. They follow the orders, ceremonies, institutes of holy Religion altogether like she-goats, which one dancing leap also themselves, nor know why. Thus a Religious spiritually asleep, follows the custom once taken up; nor considers what reason impels to it. and a holy intention in all things There happens to such the same as to an ass, which carries wine and drinks water: for both these endure the extreme labor, with little, little, little fruit. Because just as matter without form is not beautiful nor useful, so a work done without a certain intention does not please God, nor will it bring you anything of utility. For although a work good in itself be laudable, nevertheless, like matter to which form is not present, that is a good intention, it is without fruit; and foolish is he who it thus exercises. Act in the manner of the prudent and wise, nor adhere to the footsteps of fools: but in every work, whether great or small, while the spirit of life is in you, lift the eyes of the mind to God, sanctifying there your intention, and for God's love every adversity tolerating. For the love of the same Lord make prayer, read a pious book, sing the office, wash pots, sweep the house, exercise the works of charity toward the healthy and the infirm: and believe me, that if you accustom yourself to say in mind while you do these things, Lord God I do this for Your love, you will say it even when you do not think of it.

[19] because God does not consider how much one does, Thus did your beloved Mother; for although to such exercises she could devote very little, on account of her long infirmity and weakness of body; yet (which to your edification be it said) thus she acted, that of her it can with truth be said, that she did more than she could; just as God and her conscience know. This counsel therefore I give you, that you take care to have always a fervent desire of doing penance: but as to the exterior manner of acting do not be carried by your own judgment, but keep the commands of your Fathers, because thus not a little will you merit before the most holy Trinity, which only considers and weighs the heart. Therefore busy yourself that it continually you have inflamed with charity: because to a boiling pot flies do not approach, but the tepid ones fly into it and are drowned therein. From a soul seething with the fire of divine love the demon and all thoughts unclean far flee: but with what affection. but into a soul made tepid as to love and in charity cooled, plunge themselves and are drowned the flies of vanities and of useless thoughts; whence is begotten that deadly sleep of the negligent soul. Hence it comes that many sleep in holy Religion, and sleeping dream they acquire perfection: but in the hour of death they will know the falsity of their dreams chimerical; for their hands full of diabolical illusions they will find. Therefore, my Reverend Son in Christ, open your eyes, and do this that you not jestingly spend the few which remain to you of life's days: be vigilant and fervent, according to the grace by God granted you, saying with the Apostle, His grace in me was not void, who watch for You from the light: and using this method, be certain, that shortly a great progress you will make.

CHAPTER III.

Baptista's charity toward neighbors, even the slanderous or otherwise injurious, explained in the admonitions given to her Disciple.

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[20] I wish that you be at once most liberal and most avaricious, that is, most liberal toward the neighbor, [She enjoins the religious to be sparing toward himself, most liberal toward the neighbor,] and most avaricious about yourself and your person: contrary to what the world is wont. For worldly men are most liberal toward themselves, and for all things necessary anxiously provide for themselves; but toward the neighbor they are most tenacious, whom if they saw needing a hundred things, scarcely one to him would they bestow. O infinite blindness! O deplorable calamity! The Lord of all is courteous, liberal, munificent, without measure, and from Him are all things; Because the Lord's is the earth and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it: but the servant and dispenser, to whom nothing of his own right is in this worldly machine, who into it entered naked and naked into the earth quickly will return, shows himself avaricious, narrow, unmerciful, and cruel to his neighbor and brother. O supreme Trinity! O most holy Trinity! infinite thanks to You I render. O power of my impotence! O wisdom of my folly! O most clement love of my odiousness! how much can the impotence, how much savors the folly, how lovable is the odiousness which are found in me; in view of God acting in him through Him; so great thanks to You I give for me and for my nature; that You by Your power, wisdom, and infinite clemency have found a manner and way, by which our arrogance and human pride into that which is may be reduced, that is into nothing, because nothing we are and into nothing we return. Great gladness feels my heart, because in it I contemplate Your power and wisdom; and I see that You alone are and eternally will be He who always were; and conversely I know that sinners, who in their vanity, pride and accursed avarice wish to inherit the earth and transitory things, nor mercy toward the neighbor to exercise, quickly will return into smoke and into nothing; and that of the unbridled horse of desires always more and more of having, which by the swiftness of its course contends with the winds, by the powerful hand of God are to be cut the hams; whence supine he will fall, not indeed into the earth, but into the depth of hell, on account of their accursed avarice.

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[21] Alas! that this most evil vice has now its tail sent into the holy Religions; she detests avarice, whence often it happens, that those who many things in the world dismissed for the love of Christ, are so far tempted in this part by the demon, that grievous it is to them if they see a little lettuce or one loaf given to a poor person for God's love, or a cup of wine to the thirsty. O thing shameful and nefarious, to behold such a machine of vices among the servants of God! O how great thence displeasure he draws! how much his heart is afflicted! For how could the most liberal Lord endure most avaricious servants? I wish therefore that you, Father reverend and Son in Christ Jesus most dear, altogether the opposite do to what seculars do: that is, that if for your person of four things you have need, most avaricious be, and with one alone content acquiesce, leaving to God the care of your body: who, if a firm faith you have, will inspire someone to provide for you, nor will anything be wanting to you. and excessive care of oneself. Thus did your Mother: and there were so many divinely inspired to provide, not only for the internal, but also for the external her necessities, and indeed without their loss, that she could not desire more. But I do not believe that for her person ever she asked anything from her Prelates: nay rather things offered often she refused to accept, saying; Mother, I do not need that thing; give I beseech rather than to me to one in need.

[22] I wish on the contrary that toward neighbors most liberal, as often as one thing you are asked, She explains God's liberality toward bodies fourfold you give. Your Mother entered, or (that I may say it better) God drew her by His mercy into the contemplation of the most liberal charity of God. She saw in heaven how great things the most liberal Lord made, with the starry heaven's and to us visible beauty, with so many shining stars distinguished, with the scintillation of the planets, admirable by the brightness of the sun, the variety of the moon she considered how great on earth was born the sweetness of fruits and variety of leaves, how many roses and lilies, how great a diversity of fragrant herbs and utility for curing the health of men; how great a multiplicity of fishes in the sea, how great a dissimilarity of birds in the air, how many quadrupeds in the woods, how many for the domestic uses of men created living things there are: and all these and many more besides God made for our foul bodies, asked by no one; voluntarily also He provided for grain, wine, oil, and other things out of His most liberal charity, and that for those things which shortly into nothing are to be reduced. What then do you believe, my Son reverend, He has done and prepared for our soul, eternal and perpetual, founded to His image and likeness? how great a variety of glory, how great a diversity of beatitude, how incomprehensible joys, and hence she understands what He has prepared for souls. how inestimable delights, to be found in that supernal city of Jerusalem triumphant? "Glorious things are said of you, city of God." The gates shine with pearls, the shrines lying open; and by the power of merits is led in there, everyone who for Christ's name here in the world is pressed: and the streets and

its walls all of purest gold. O blessed Jerusalem, you are the vision of peace, the habitation of the contented, the fruition of eternal glory. But why so many and so great goods did God found in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the elements, except that to us mortals He might demonstrate His most liberal charity and infinite mercy? because He is wholly liberal, benign, easy and gracious; nor only out of the fullness of His charity does He communicate something, but also Himself He bestows in the most holy Sacrament. O most liberal God! You to us Yourself and all Your things give: the most evil sinner on the contrary denies to his neighbor things however least.

[23] From this place your Mother drew her liberality, and how He wishes us to be assimilated to Him by liberality. although in tender age also most manifestly she declared that with the same virtue she was endowed. Now moreover she rejoices more to give than to receive, and nevertheless more and more she feels in this grace herself to profit and grow. Be therefore very liberal, if you wish to be conformed to God: for nothing else God loves than Himself, and His image and likeness in us. This doctrine that handmaid of God learned in the school of divine wisdom. If you do not understand it, ask: and you will find God to be in every thing lovable, and all things outside Him to be odious. Understand me: because no one is good, except God alone; who is most liberal, pious, and merciful; of whose mercy there is no number, to whom be praise and glory through infinite ages. Amen.

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[24] I omit to say how tender bowels of charity that same handmaid of God had for having compassion on the imperfections and infirmities of her neighbor: She is taught to judge no one, because it is not always expedient to open the eyes of the blind: only I affirm to you, that your Mother was on this matter divinely instructed, [while still being in the world]. But since ignorant then she was of all spiritual things, she did not understand of how great moment that doctrine was, and of how profound a significance: but after she was in Religion, so well she comprehended it, the Holy Spirit her mind illuminating, that for about eighteen years in which she lived in it, neither as a subject nor as a prelate ever did she say anything of evil about any creature. But if perchance, God permitting it to increase your crown, and the demon instigating, everyone of you spoke evil; take care that vengeance you not leave to your sons, but yourself do it, by praising to the Visitors the holy conversation of the Brothers, as if all were Angels incarnate; nor indicate who spoke evil of him, lest hatred or indignation in your heart arise, and to be blind to the defects of neighbors. by which two vices abominable to God become spiritual services: but note well, that this cannot be done, unless the soul has its heart occupied about God and full of knowledge of itself. For then made blind to beholding the defects of neighbors, not knowing the errors and faults of others, it can say with truth, All seem to me Angels incarnate. Hence it seems to me to your Mother came this grace, that she had not what to say to the Visitors: nay even I affirm to you in truth, that often the Novices more such things knew to relate, than she who was in Religion so many years: but if sometimes something others relating she heard, as if abroad she had been absent, she said within herself, Can it be that I have been ignorant of this? Then take it.

[25] I say moreover that she by God's grace in this doctrine comprehended a certain diabolical subtlety, by which many even the perfect are deceived: wherefore, She compares the vice of murmuring to leprosy, because from my whole heart I love you, it I wish to manifest to you. Know, my Son, that the murmurings and judgments which are made in Religion, by the demon are covered and procured to be made under the appearance of some good: whence it happens that a snare, very subtle and almost invisible, escapes even the mental eyes of contemplatives. This is the most evil leech, which sucks out, snatches, and takes away all the labors and sweats of Religious men and women. This is that most evil leprosy, with which was contaminated Mary the Prophetess, the sister of Moses: nor did it profit her her prophetic spirit, that she be not chastised: nay because she had murmured she was struck with a leprosy more pestilent and sorrowful: and unless Moses, against whom she had murmured, for her had prayed, within a few days, as the Scripture says, consumed and dead she would have been. O noble figure and exemplary mirror, by the Holy Spirit set forth in the old Testament, at whose mere sight should tremble spiritual murmurers!

[26] But this doctrine is little considered and less understood, which to us a certain argument affords, that he who in holy Religion is clean from such leprosy, possesses a secure earnest of Paradise. Hence it was that your Mother so much had compassion on the murmurer, because it infects also the hearer. and envied him about whom was murmured: Because to those loving God all things cooperate unto good. A special property of leprosy is, not only to consume the flesh of the wretched sufferer, but also by contact to defile the companion: therefore the Lord commanded that Mary be cast out outside the camp, lest she infect others: but this signifies that which is commonly said, As much does he who holds, as he who flays: for indeed no more does he sin who murmurs, than he who his ears to murmuring lends; nay the second more than the first: for if there were not one who would listen, there would not be also one who would murmur. One demon in the tongue of the murmurer resides, and another in the ear of the listener: both in turn nod and laugh together, mocking the foolish Religious who murmurs, and the stolid and senseless one who listens. I wish that you be wise, and neither murmur, nor to murmurings lend an ear. But know, that if a face disturbed and dark you show to one wishing with you to murmur, two goods at one and the same time you will do: because you will put to flight the demon, which sat upon his tongue; and far you will drive away also the other, which was prepared that it might occupy your ear. But I notice that I have made a long digression, and I believe that your assiduous prayers, for your greater utility, were the cause of it. I will conclude therefore by saying, that I do not wish that you murmur about any thing or person, and she bids a sad face be shown to the murmurer. neither about good nor about evil, nor on account of good nor on account of evil. Wherefore remember this precept, and it in work fulfill: for I do not speak without cause. Hold, Son, the bridle with your hand, because according to St. James in his Canonical Epistle, a Religious not rebridling his tongue, of this man vain is the religion.

[27] That subtle snare, which I had promised you to show, lies hidden under this Visitation. She shows the snare set in the time of Visitation by the demon, For since the demon knows, that every good our working, unless it be founded in charity, is odious to God, and to us unfruitful and vain; therefore that malign spirit all his industry thither directs, that he make us to the Father Visitor say many and many things, which related there is no need of, and which more maturely considered are nothing other, than opinions and suspicions; for such however they are not apprehended by the imperfect, having their eye always intent on What, not on When. Hence grows lukewarm fraternal charity, and among Religious is broken the bond of peace: but the suspicions being multiplied there follows the total cooling and extinction of the same charity. This since the malign spirits know, they esteem themselves to be, and indeed are, lifted upon the horse; nor any more do they care for our obedience, they make little of honesty, they hiss off poverty, tears, disciplines, for charity to be violated by delations, fasts, and whatever other virtuous works: for only charity makes us pleasing to God, and gives Paradise. Wherefore the demon has his bow and arrows venomed always directed against the root of fraternal love, and to its destruction with all effort he intends. Therefore he makes us rashly judge, therefore he makes us murmur, therefore during the Visitation he fills minds with suspicions; and finally he scatters tares in the hearts of others, and exterminates zeal for the honor of Religion, that to the tongue he may afford opportunity of saying and relating what is not fitting.

[28] with great spiritual loss. Alas for me! alas for me! How great goods on that account souls lose, by their malice blinded! how many labors are rendered unfruitful! how great thence is born the disquiet of consciences! Not even to know can they what is good, because they are disturbed. If they make prayer, no taste from it they take, or in it they do not trust God, because they are not capable of any spiritual joy: and all these evils proceed from the tongue. Be silent, be silent of others' things: for the Prophet says, "I was silent from good things." To you, to you I speak, my Son. I wish that this manner of conversing in holy Religion you keep, because by God's grace thus acted your most prudent Mother; and thence from God's special gift so great peace she drew, that to one telling it you could not believe: and the same prerogative I desire also for your blessed soul.

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[29] Know also that that Religious [whose secrets I reveal to you] although divinely endowed with many graces and spiritual gifts, Above all graces she desires the love of enemies. and a singular love and benevolence of God toward herself by arguments plainly extraordinary having experienced, nevertheless always thirsted for that, by which she could all who deserved evil of her with a sincere heart love, and more than those who to her did well. Which handmaid of God also, in her holy and devout prayers, was wont often by exclaiming to say, O my God! O most clement Lord! if to me You should reveal all the most secret hidden things of Your heart, and daily should show all the Angelic hierarchies, and to me should confer the power daily of resuscitating the dead, I would not on that account wish to believe, that certain I should be, that You love me with a love indefectible and infallible; except when I feel the grace of a sincere heart, to speak well of anyone doing me evil, and without contradiction of mind to praise anyone speaking evil of me, and unjustly slandering me. Then, eternal and most clement Father, as by an infallible sign, I will believe, that truly I am a daughter of Yours, comforting myself by the example of Your most beloved son Jesus Christ crucified, who is the only good of my soul, as a certain sign of divine love. and hanging on the cross for His crucifiers prayed. But to God be thanks, that of that gift a good part attained already to herself seems that soul; when, whatever to her said or done injury, no aversion at all she feels in her heart from its authors, however very atrocious ones she has borne, which to you I do not write: God and they themselves know them. Nay with the greatest pleasure she is affected, by saying or doing something which can be pleasing to her injurers: only it ill affects her, the loss, which those unhappy souls do;

and from her whole heart for them she prays God, that to them He impute not this sin: sometimes also in this play of love, tending to the highest perfection, she indulges them the prerogative of one or another Pater and Ave. I wish, O blessed soul, that also the same you do: that is, that you press on by the secure footsteps of that your Mother, who so greatly loves you, that for your edification she writes such things. But I trust in God and your prudence, that the time spent on this writing, will not be unfruitful, but to your heart the greatest will bring utility. Whatever in one year you can effect, do not divide into two. Walk, run, fly in the way of God. The upright walk, the wise run, the loving fly to the fruition of the divine majesty. If you can run, do not walk; and she admonishes the disciple always to strive to advance. if you can fly, do not run: because the time is short. In the way of God you must always advance, go backward never. If to the fire are not added wood, by itself it is extinguished: so if to the soul be not added virtue, in itself it fails; and beginning from "I believe in God," it will end in "the resurrection of the flesh," that is in secular businesses and cares. But you and every Christian soul from such a way may the Lord take away. Meanwhile if much you desire to profit, fear God, and love those who slander you. This to you I wished inculcated. Attend to yourself, open your eyes, and at home keep your mind: because few there are who ardently desire to come to that Evangelical perfection, which with His most sweet mouth taught me the most benign Jesus: few there are, I say, who attain to true perfection, set in this that they love their enemies.

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[30] I have concluded with God's grace, and finished these salutary admonitions, Reverend Father and Son mine most beloved, which I wish that you keep and guard with that charity, In concluding, she renders the reason, with which I send them to you. I wished also to console you by narrating to you the spiritual life of that your beloved Mother, covered under the shadow of precepts: nor grievous to me was it so little a labor for your sake to undertake, for I trust in my crucified Jesus, that much thence utility and mental consolation to you will come. Of your principal things, such as are obedience, poverty, and honesty, a special admonition none to you here I have given, and that for two causes. First, because he who will observe these precepts, impossible will it be that he be not obedient, poor, chaste: secondly because to me you seem so well disposed to subject voluntarily your neck to the yoke of holy obedience, why she says nothing of obedience, that useless I judge to be future and outside the purpose any on that matter exhortation. To corroborate nevertheless your will, I say these few words: that no sacrifice can you offer to God more acceptable, than if you offer to Him your will and your judgment, by the mediation of holy obedience: because it is written; "Obedience I wish more than sacrifice."

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[31] Of holy poverty also to you I do not speak, for it from Christ to be obtained so desirous you to be I know, that for it you would dismiss a thousand worlds: one thing I say, that truly very blessed is he, who that pearl oriental knows. This necklace of inestimable price by your Mother through God's grace was recognized, and it for herself and others she procured: but on her alone fell the burden of paying the price, namely of many afflictions, fatigues, in poverty, and tears before God, and of not few tribulations to be sustained from the Brothers and Sisters, Princes, Presbyters, and Seculars: so that she could with truth affirm, that poverty more to her stood, than to the opulent are wont to stand riches: and more she sought and desired to have it, than the avaricious is wont gain of money to pursue. My Son, your poverty let this be, to wish while you live nothing other than Jesus crucified, in whom you will find true and supreme riches. O how poor is he, in chastity, who wishes something other than God! how rich, who has nothing other than God! As to chastity, no more about it with you to converse I wish: for I know that of this virtue the crown you deserve to wear above all your companions: and therefore this your Mother with a most special love pursues you. But it seems to me to be fitting, that about this point you acquiesce in this my narration: for since the fragile vessel of your body adorned is with this precious gem, and illustrated with this Angelic splendor, I could not omit but with you I should communicate the secrets of your Handmaid, that in you they be reposed and conserved. * Of holy prayer another thing also to you I do not write (since by word of mouth enough about it with you I have spoken) than this one, that see that you understand, and in prayer. When you cannot reap, snatch violently; that is, when you cannot with the mind, with the mouth at least pray.

CHAPTER IV.

Baptista's virtue exercised by the adverse and prosperous cases of the House of Varano: the office of Vicaress, the foundation of Fano, the dignity of Abbess.

[32] From these precepts written to her dear Disciple scarcely had passed a three-year period, when matter for exercising toward enemies that heroic charity, In the year 1502 Baptista's father and Brothers are slain, such as above she explained, Baptista offered her a furious tempest, which the Varano family almost utterly overthrew. Since, as relates Leander Alberti in the description of Italy on p. 425, her Father Julius, when of the Principality long and happily he had possessed himself (namely for forty or fifty years, if at Camerino Baptista was born) at length in the year 1502 by a fate like that by which Priam perished; when, the Camerians of their own accord into the power of Pope Alexander VI surrendering, him, with Venantius, Hannibal, and Peter his sons, in prison enclosed, Caesar Borgia Duke of Valentinois in the citadel of Pergola most cruelly slew; so that one plainly of that house remained, John-Maria, the least of all the brothers; except the youngest John-Maria: whom the father at the beginning of the war to Venice with his treasures, as his son Polydorus into Thrace Priam, sent away: but with a happier outcome, which to the merits and prayers of Baptista you may attribute. For quickly fortune being turned, Alexander VI dying about the year 1503, the single spark of the Varano house again she brought forth and made grow into the greatest light.

[33] who in the year 1503 honorably received at Camerino, For John-Maria de Varanis, who with his father Julius, the Lieutenant of King Ferdinand, at Naples first had been, and then in the army of the Aragonese with his brother Venantius had set up his military training; had passed to Venice, and in that school of prudence was exercised in the arts worthy of a great Prince; when his father and brothers the power of the Duke of Valentinois overwhelmed and extinguished, together with the liberty of the Camerians. But Alexander dying quickly into disgust with them came Caesar Borgia; therefore it was easy for John- Maria, supported by the aids of the Venetians, to recover the city, by his ancestors possessed: whither with Mutius Columna, the Toparch of Matelica, coming, by all the people most festively was he received. The dominion of the city to the same Pius III the successor of Alexander confirmed, in that brief Pontificate which he held of a month not entire: and ratified also it held Julius II, in the same year still substituted into the Chair of Peter. Thus Pascuccius, p. 128: who then on p. 136 sad things with glad mixes, from an author of that age transcribing the death and obsequies of Lady Joanna, from which Baptista to be absent it was not permitted, that the last office to her best mother she might pay. her mother having died, Of both the words here I add. There dies the most illustrious Joanna, the daughter of Gismund Lord of Rimini: whom all trust, for her goodness, justice, and mercy, received into the place of eternal salvation, to have filled the triad of the blessed souls of her house, of Rupert, I say, and of Margaret, who one monastery at Ferrara founded, and with opulent revenues endowed; where also made a Nun she died, just as also the most illustrious Joanna, of the Order of the Observance of St. Francis, whose soul as we hope, rejoices in the heavens forever.

[34] The obsequies were beyond measure solemn; for the whole Court and the public State intervened, and also thirty-six Deputies from the citizens, she makes magnificent obsequies, from each Region of the city twelve. All things mourning and sadness breathed, but full of majesty. For in the hall greater the body laid out, an appearance still of one living showed, in the monastic habit of the third Order which she had professed, standing about it Matrons innumerable with grief confounded. There was present also with her Nuns Sister Baptista, the faculty for this making he, whose it was in such a case to loose the obligation of enclosure. And these indeed while the funeral pomp was led held one side, the other occupied the courtly Chamberlains and honorary Pages, all clad in black, following the Collaterals, Doctors, and Citizens; but the Clergy followed their General Vicar, whom the Religious Orders and the Confraternities had preceded, in a column so long, that when the body was borne out from the gate of the Palace, the first of the eighteen Crosses had already reached the threshold of the Cathedral church. The bier bore the Podestà and the Castellan, and the Captains of the Arts, mutually succeeding each other. At the entrance of the church, which all draped in black with torches lighted shone, a confused and great lamentation arose of the people, the Mother, Lady, Patroness lost bewailing. Baptista also intervening. John-Maria, from the excess of sincere sorrow, thrice a swoon suffered: Baptista, with no less edification of all, had her tears in her power. The body of the deceased in a leaden chest some time stood upon the arch of the ancient tribune; but elsewhere afterward it was translated, the Pontiff forbidding, that the deposited remains of the dead in a place higher than the altars be had. But this was done about the year 1570, when Pius V for that matter sent Apostolic Visitors through all the Papal dominions, of whom we treated on March 13 where of the cult of B. Eric the Pilgrim among the Perugians at no. 7. There is moreover seen even today Joanna's effigy, expressed in living colors in the church of St. Francis, in a panel representing the flight into Egypt, and beside her in the habit of a Tertiary with her son John-Maria, so that from the mother's mouth to the Virgin Mother of God seem to issue in gilded letters these words: As You Yourself and Your son did save, so me and my son to save You deigned. And there was subscribed Joanna Malatesta Varana, the pious wife of the Prince of Camerino.

[35] The year and day of her death it is a wonder by no one to have been expressed. It does not seem to have happened before the year 1505, Pascuccius the aforesaid seems to place before the year 1505, at the beginning of which to the beginnings of the Convent of Fermo to be made Sister Baptista was asked for; but to this conjecture I cannot assent. For since already from the year 1482 the Episcopate of his fatherland had held Fabritius de Varanis, the son of Hercules, the brother of Peter-Gentilis, nor did he die, Ughellus witnessing, before the year 1506, whatever his fortune was under the Duke of Valentinois, restored certainly it must have been, on the return into the city of John-Maria; nor sufficiently credible does it seem, that a Prelate so connected with the deceased, if he had lived and at Camerino

present he had been, but rather after the year 1506; would not have a part and a name in the funeral history, to whom above all others it pertained the mortuary Sacrifice to celebrate himself, but not through a Vicar. Wherefore I more incline that these things were done while the See was vacant, between March 7 on which Fabritius died, and February of the year 1508 in which to him was substituted Franciscus Roboreus, Pope Julius II's nephew by a brother.

[36] The office of Vicaress Baptista discharged, as above we saw, when it was commanded her to write about the mental sorrows of Christ, in the year 1487, though before this Baptista was summoned to Fermo, passing of her age the year 33: there followed then the time of testing admirable, for five years continued, which by her briefly indicated, but not historically described we have seen. Thence nothing of the acts of her life through thirty years to find Pascuccius could, except a single brief of Pope Julius II, by which to the Fermo citizens power is made, of bringing her to them, of this tenor. Julius the second Pontiff, to our beloved Sons of our city of Fermo.

Beloved Sons, greeting and amplified apparently: Apostolic? benediction. You have caused to be set forth to us, how in our city of Fermo lately an ample and honorable monastery of Nuns, of the Congregation of St. Clare of the Order of St. Francis, for the increase of divine worship, by the license and assent of the Apostolic See and of the Superiors, or otherwise legitimately and according to the order of law the things to be observed being observed, newly constructed and built exists; and you Nuns of the said Order and Congregation in the same monastery desire to be congregated; and it is necessary and opportune, for instructing the monastery itself and the novice Nuns flowing thither, from some other monastery of the same Order, to begin the monastery there, some Nuns of holy life, probity and morals, and in the Rule and institutions and ordinances of the Order aforesaid instructed, to call in; and on your part to Us it was humbly supplicated, that on this opportunely to provide we would deign. We to such supplications inclined, to our beloved in Christ daughters, Baptista de Varanis and Angela de Octonibus, Nuns of the Camerino monastery of the same Order and Congregation, with one, two, or more Nuns of the same monastery, as to them shall seem, with the consent however of the Superiors, for one or two years, as to the same Superiors shall seem, that to the said monastery of the city of Fermo they transfer themselves, and it with the Nuns flowing to it order, according to the Constitutions of the Order and Congregation aforesaid and of the Superiors of the same (upon which we charge their conscience, under the penalty of excommunication ipso facto to be incurred) by Apostolic authority by the tenor of the present we command: not withstanding, etc. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the ring of the Fisherman, the 28th day of January 1505, of our Pontificate the year 2.

[37] Behold how to the Fermo city, for only one or two years, Baptista is granted: therefore nothing prevents, and thence having returned to Camerino. that after the death of Bishop Fabritius, and before the institution of the successor Franciscus, she returned to Camerino, before her mother incurred the last sickness. But she was when to Fermo she was destined, and had almost completed of her age the year 47, from which to the year of the same age 64 of Christ 1521 nothing found Pascuccius, which into the history he might insert, except the felicity of the Varano House, to the supreme almost summit of honor raised, through the aforesaid John-Maria's marriage with Lady Catharina Cibo, the niece of Pope Leo X by his sister Magdalena. For he in the year 1515 in the Consistory of the Cardinals the modesty, justice, and magnanimity of him being praised, with the consent of the College, with the title of Duke the same he adorned; where she saw in the year 1515 her brother created Duke, having sent one who the Ducal ornaments with the investiture of the Camerino dominion to the same should confer, Cardinal Innocent Cibo, his likewise nephew by the aforesaid sister; and finally to the same the Prefecture of the city of Rome he conferred, besides other benefits many. The memory of these the new Duke turned Prefect wished to be extant; and in the public Palace of Camerino, this title for himself to be set he caused: John-Maria, the son of Julius-Caesar, in his twenty-first year, the Dominion assumed: the citadel of Camerino he built, Visso and St. Genesius he obtained; of Camerino the dignity of Duchy, Sassoferrato, Civitanova, the Prefecture of the City, and the County of Senigallia.

Hence besides other things to our purpose we learn that Baptista was than this her younger brother, born about the year 1482, by a full 24 years older, and among all Julius's children perhaps the first-born, so that this her brother could have her in a mother's place.

[38] No wonder therefore is it, that, by her great with the Duke her brother authority and favor, the Camerino monastery to that of dignity and greatness came, that this place among the principal of the Province was to be numbered, and by his favor signally she establishes the monastery, and forty-six Nuns most well it holds, as testifies Gonzaga, about the year 1580 beginning to write of the Origin of the Seraphic Franciscan Religion. But especially in the public good of her monastery must have labored Baptista, after from Fermo returned, and the above-named Abbess Sister Pacifica dead, by common votes was asked to the same dignity she herself: nor do we think to her any was preferred, who between Pacifica and Baptista herself in that office for some years discharged. We know not however to divine the year in which she was made Abbess, made Abbess. nor that she was made could we show (for Pascuccius omitted to note it) unless were brought forth her Letter, written to the Reverend in Christ Jesus, Father most to be venerated Fr. John of Fano, of the Order of Minors of the Observance, of the divine word a most worthy Herald: to which Letter in this manner she subscribed: Your unworthy daughter, Sister Baptista de Varano, Abbess, in the monastery of Christ Jesus a useless handmaid. But while toward the end of the Letter her son also she seems to call John; a suspicion to me it instills, that he is that beloved Disciple, to whom are extant the admonitions above set.

* perhaps Apostolic?

CHAPTER V.

Baptista's familiarity with John of Fano; under whom arose the Congregation of the Capuchins: the Blessed's death and the veneration of her body and incorrupt tongue.

[39] Of the various letters which to that holy man Baptista wrote, one of them wholly written in Latin produces Pascuccius, which entire here it pleases to weave in; both because it contributes somewhat to the history, She congratulates John, who had suffered many revilings, and that of his Latin style a specimen may be had. It is then such. JESUS. Upon the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept when we remembered you, Sion. They are the words of the Singer of the Holy Spirit, for the consolation of the afflicted brought forth, Lord reverend and most beloved, best Father, both to the state of tribulation and persecution of Your Reverence they suit, in my poor judgment. For the elect sit and rest upon the rivers of Babylon: but the impious, the reprobate, and sinners are submerged in the rivers of Babylon. You therefore, soul lovable and renowned, who are of the fellowship and number of the elect, have sat and rested upon the rivers of Babylon, that is upon the waters of tribulation, in hope of the resurrection of your innocence and virtue. You have sat and rested in God your salvation, who is the defender and keeper of the innocence of His elect. The defamers and detractors of Your Reverence are submerged in the abyss of confusion and of their loquacity. Always, Father lovable, before the dawn and the sun darkness goes before. So also after the mountains, beautiful, pleasant, and flowery plains we find wont. That heavenly Physician, a glorious exit, who for the human race's salvation on the cross hung, to His elect, after the rivers of persecution and straits, joyfulness dispenses and gladness; and after tears, Angelic laughter the elect learn in the school of the crucified humanity of Christ: and although the material medicine with wrinkled brow drinks the sick man, not a little afterward he rejoices in recovered bodily health. He permits many times that lovable and most pious One, that all things to us grow bitter, that He alone may sweet and lovable appear. O most sweet Jesus, O ineffable love, how sweet and delightful are Your works to the soul seeking You, to the soul loving You without fraud and dissimulation, to the soul which with all affection affectionately rests in the breast of Your crucified humanity, where the fullness of divinity corporeally dwells.

[40] Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Sion, O soul loving God and by God loved exceedingly, as she had before greatly had compassion on him. because the stoners and persecutors not knowing have placed on your head a crown of precious stone: and believing the reverence of your Paternity to despoil of honor, dignity, and glory, they have woven for you an immortal tunic in this life of honor and glorious fame: for gold, in the fire proved and examined, more clearly its value and price demonstrates. You, Father reverend, were a precious lily closed: now you have spread the leaves of your patience and virtue, and have given a precious odor to the whole Religion and Province of the March, which for three years most modestly and most virtuously you governed, and with your Angelic most prudent governance the Brothers and Sisters you have ruled in holiness and peace. We wept, we all your daughters, while you, cordial Father, sat upon the rivers of Babylon, while we remembered your benignity and sweetness, O Sion! O soul with divine charity full! But now we exult, and jubilate, and immortal thanks we give to almighty God, who gave dominion to His servant B. and saved the son of His handmaid, namely John. He made with me a sign for good, that those may see who hate you and be confounded, since You, Lord, have helped him and consoled me. These above noted inept words, with a feminine running style, I have penned; that Your reverend Paternity may have in your prayers memory of me, to whom humbly and devoutly I commend myself, and your benediction I cordially ask. Farewell in Him, who is of all hoping in Him the true and consummate salvation, whom for your daughter and handmaid remember to entreat. In the monastery of St. Mary-the-new of Camerino, the 20th day of April 1521.

[41] This is that John of Fano, who about the year 1525 again made Vicar Provincial of the March, He in the year 1525 first treats a Capuchin more harshly, Fr. Matthew of Bascio, from a Chamberlain of Julius-Caesar the father of Baptista, made among the Observants a preacher of eminent spirit and zeal, having undertaken to change the form of the hood, and for that cause going to Rome and from the journey drawn back, in the Provincial Chapter celebrated at Matelica gravely reprehended, as guilty of apostasy, and in prison enclosed. That matter announced to the Duchess of Camerino, very devout to Friar Matthew, so moved her, that with threatening letters first John she assailed, then also with words before the Guardian of Camerino expostulating, she compelled him to dismiss the bound one, as asserts Pascuccius. But Matthew to Rome betook himself to the Pontiff Clement VII, to ask the faculty, which also he obtained, and opposing his companions in the year 1626, in the assumed habit where it should please to lead the eremitic life. Then in the following year 1526 Fr. Ludovicus and Fr. Raphael, both of Fossombrone and brothers german,

led by the same spirit as Matthew, nor yet into his society received, by themselves also the same hooded habit assumed; and the Duke and Duchess favoring, the same faculty which he from the Pontiff they obtained, on the 18th day of May; and so having returned to Camerino, within certain chambers of the Ducal palace, until a place proper to their institute should be prepared, for a while they contained themselves, together with others from time to time joined, whom names Fr. John of Terranova in the little Tract on the origin of the Capuchins, to be found at May 18 after the Acts of B. Felix.

[42] It did not please, says Pascuccius, Fr. John that so prudent a Prince should be so affected toward this new Religion, he writes to the Dukes of Camerino, and to that little flock so powerfully should patronize. He wrote therefore to him a vehement letter, asking that from his palace he should expel those, whom he called contumacious; and compel them to return to obedience, whence they had departed: he wrote also another to the Duchess in the same sense, and finally a third to Baptista, and to Baptista herself: exhorting her that with as great efficacy as she could the same to her german Dukes she should persuade: but from their answer enough he understood it had been in vain. He himself therefore to Camerino betook himself, and an opportune time being caught, he tried with words composed for persuasion to effect, what he had not been able through letters. But there is no wisdom, there is no counsel against the Lord; and by the true event was made plain that sentence of Gamaliel: If this counsel is from men, the work will be dissolved; but if it is from God, you will not be able to dissolve it: with which formal words Baptista to John had answered, writing back to him. For at the beginning doubtful was she, whether she should approve or disapprove this novelty, who answers him wisely. and to Fr. Matthew and his companions should show favor: but at last both she and John himself acknowledged it to be God, who the hearts of the Camerino Dukes was moving to protect the Capuchins. Wherefore not only troublesome to them the Vicar ceased to be, but also his mind he applied to embracing the same institute: about which matter with Baptista conferring, with whom he was wont to communicate about the chief affairs of his soul, goads from her new he received for the heavenly impulse to execution to bring.

[43] Thus Pascuccius, who as an argument of the mutual between John and Baptista confidence, alleges many of her to him letters, and verbatim also that which above we have given, [Wrongly is she thought to have been the author for him of passing to the Capuchins,] but far earlier; when rather it ought to have been her to adduce, if there was any, whence might be proved her of that latter counsel a partaker truly to have been Baptista; as above he had alleged the brief answer, which to him about the Capuchins she had given. Indeed, since from Waddingus most certainly it is established, that John still among the Observants lived in the year 1532, nor except two years after he to the Capuchins came holds Boverius, but the Duke of Camerino, the same Boverius witnessing, died of pestilence in the year 1528; impossible it becomes that Baptista, before her brother dead, had a part in the aforesaid change: since dead before the year 1528: nay even probable it is, that she, although the Capuchins to oppose she would not; for that with which John she pursued reverence and that with which the Order's quiet she followed zeal in no matter to them positively favored against his expressed will. For indeed, this man, as John of Terranova writes, when he was Minister of the Province of the March, so great a persecutor of the Capuchins was, that not even their name could he hear without indignation and threatening: so that if any of his subjects of good spirit, showed indication of a will of going to them, he received him ill, not only with words, but also with prisons. Let us say therefore that Baptista, for her of judging no one institute, explained above at no. 25, amid those troubles of her Order to herself alone and her Sisters intent only, committed to God the rest, the care of which in nothing pertained to her.

[44] Would that to the letters in that cause back and forth at the beginning given, yet not before the year 1526, which mentions Pascuccius, and which by himself seen he seems to indicate, had been subscribed notes of the year and day. But this seems to have been omitted in that of precipitated matters haste: for otherwise would have recognized Pascuccius, that she who still lived when these things were done, did not die in the year 1524, as he has on p. 183; or 1525, as he has on p. 146; here the words of Lilius Camillus, there of Angelus Benignus alleging. For from the said things manifestly it appears, that Baptista must at least until the year 1526 by living have reached: when if she had died on the last day of May, only a few days she would have lived after the return of Fr. Ludovicus and Raphael of Fossombrone, if however they before May's end returned from Rome. Hardly however is it credible, that she, with the last sickness struggling and to death near, either was interpellated for so rough a business by John, or to the interpellator an answer in writing would have given. Therefore, but rather 1527, when it is not permitted to stand by the numbers of the writers of Camerino above noted, without injury to the coeval Capuchins, the year of their origin without doubt more certainly noting; the mind inclines that without fear I judge, that in the year 1527, of her age the 69th begun, she died Baptista, when Easter was celebrated April 21; on the feast of Corpus Christi. and so the day May 31 with the feast of Corpus Christi concurs, toward which mystery how devout she was she explained herself at no. 45 of her Life. About her death since nothing he finds in the Camerino records Pascuccius, except at the beginning alleged words of Lilius Camillus, asserting the obsequies by the whole Ducal court magnificently to have been celebrated; nor we of it can say anything else, than that most piously she passed away.

[45] Her body, says Pascuccius bk. 3 ch. 13, by the Nuns buried in a decent place was in their choir, Her body buried in the choir, that a more present always they might have of their Foundress memory, and of the protection from heaven to be hoped a nearer earnest. But after thirty years in which it thus buried lay, not bearing the Religious women longer it under earth to be hidden, with the highest reverence it from its tomb they drew out. after 30 years it is raised whole, Nor can it be said what joy their breasts inundated, how great a copiousness of tears from their eyes pressed out the most tender sense of devotion, when they saw it still on every side unharmed and uncontaminated, with a face more glad than pale, as if all it saluted, and with eyes plainly vivid. Hence it more decently than before they placed, in greater veneration to be had. and again it is buried But to their will opposed himself of that time the Confessor; and I know not by what zeal moved, he wished it again under earth to be hidden: nor without some (as it seems) indiscretion he caused that sacred pledge within two boards to be fastened together, and much upon it earth to be heaped: nay even water copious to be poured on he commanded, and so the soaked earth by his companion to be pressed and trodden.

[46] The obedience, which in that place most exact the Nuns profess, The bones in the year 1593 found, effected that none of them a word should oppose to the zeal of that Religious man: and so the body buried again, according to God's good pleasure, remained there hidden until the year 1593; when it behoved new sepulchers for the bodies of the dead to be buried to be made. Then indeed the elder Virgins, from whose memory had never departed the place, in which lay buried their Mother; commended to the workmen, that the greatest caution they should use in removing the earth. But these doing this unexpectedly there appeared a board, which removed since a most sweet odor thence was poured, it was recognized it to be that which to the body of the Blessed had been laid. Therefore at the news of the thing ran all, flowing for joy with tears suffused; and they exulted, seeing after so many years issue of so great sweetness a fragrance from that body; so that it could not be doubted but that the soul long ago was into the bridal chamber of the heavenly Spouse received, after whom living so strenuously she had run in the odor of His ointments. Admiration it increased, that the tongue alone, even then moist and with a bloody color reddening, altogether had remained free of all corruption. There were present at the uncovering of the sacred bones (for the rest of the flesh into ashes resolved had gone, that the vow of her above at no. 15 desiring be fulfilled, that her body, which to the earth she commends, into dust, as befits its vile matter, shortly be resolved) there were present, I say, at the sacred bones' uncovering, not only all the Nuns of the place, with the tongue still incorrupt, but also their Confessor Fr. Evangelista of Fabriano, commonly called Pharao; who more attentively considering the tongue fresh, soft and ruddy, amid pious tears wondering broke forth into these words of St. Bonaventure, of St. Anthony of Padua the tongue likewise whole beholding: O blessed tongue, which always God you blessed, and others to bless taught! now manifestly appears, your how great were toward God your services.

[47] in precious caskets they are placed, The sacred body of the blessed Mother found, as I said, with as great solemnity as was permitted it was deposited within a new marble chest, in the choir of that monastery, in that form in which even today it is beheld. The tongue separately reserved, and within a reliquary casket was enclosed: which casket, as also the chest itself, more preciously to be adorned in the year 1626 took care the eminent piety of Lord Scipio Savini Archdeacon of Camerino. He after to many successively Pontiffs he had given service in the office of Secretary of State, as they call it, his soul's greatness and munificent liberality made attested in the churches of his fatherland more splendidly to be adorned: and then crystals being added he caused, that as well the chest as the reliquary aforesaid to the eyes of beholders were transparent, there running to behold them men of every condition and persons, even of first rank and most eminent.

[48] and religiously visited by chief matrons, Thus in the year 1639 in the month of October, through Camerino passing the most excellent Lady Constantia Magalotti Barberini, the kinswoman of happy memory Urban Pope VIII, with the most illustrious Ladies Lucretia Vaïni and Maria Machiavelli, her sisters german, came to the monastery of St. Clare, to visit the body of B. Baptista de Varanis: and Mass having been heard at it and the Relics venerated, and the tongue within a silver pyx preserved, she entered also with the aforesaid sisters the monastery: which surveyed, within the chest of the Blessed she left a gold coin new, with the image of her kinsman Pontiff impressed and other alms. In like manner the place visited Lady Anna Columna Barberini, the wife of the most excellent Lord Thaddeus, equally the nephew of the aforesaid Pope Urban, in the month of May of the year… and entering the monastery herself also, she said, that to her with the Varano family a consanguinity intervened. and Relics are sought. But at this visitation there was present for honor's sake the most illustrious Lord Aemilius Alterius Bishop of Camerino, who was afterward supreme Pontiff and universal Pastor of the Church called Clement X. Finally many other qualified persons, for the fame of the devotion continued hitherto, visited and honored that sacred deposit: and religious men not a few of great esteem desired and obtained some cotton, within the chest placed, which for Relics they might have for themselves.

CHAPTER VI.

Graces obtained at the invocation of B. Baptista.

[49] To the Patriarch Joseph, just as the sacred letters relate, was entrusted the Royal ring of Pharaoh, that for signing favors at his own judgment he might use it: God through His Saints working miracles, and although he it as a minister of the King and acting in his stead handled, always yet there appeared impressed on the wax the figure of the King himself, and it was reckoned to be the signature, not of Joseph, but of Pharaoh. Not otherwise acts with His friends God, granting to them often the grace of miracles, which are as the ring of His omnipotence; and they as ministers it thus use, that they wish them to be known proceeded from God. Hence it is that frequently at the mere invocation of the name, or the touch of the sepulcher or body, or even of the garments, admirable altogether follow effects. But this prerogative also to B. Baptista was granted, among other graces gratuitously given. For the confirmation of this assertion it pleases to gather some many examples of cures, in these our times (to say nothing of older ones) obtained through her intercession, Baptista is wont to forewarn her daughters of death whence the divine toward us benignity more and more may shine forth. But before I come to the infirmities and diseases, I ought to premise a certain as it were perpetual grace, which to her beloved daughters the Blessed imparts. Namely, that as often as some one of them the common debt of humanity is about to pay, some days before her death there is heard within her sepulcher a motion and a certain noise; that by that sign there be admonished each one, to the last exit herself to prepare: whence if any then it happens to be more grievously sick, they are wont more curiously the holy chest to observe, whether perchance from that disease she is indicated to be about to die.

[50] The same invoked are healed, the arthritic, Now I will come to the cures of diseases, and from many a few I will relate, especially in her daughters' diseases shown, that they might accustom themselves in their whatever necessities to her to recur. Sister Martha Nemcei with arthritic pains for many now years tormented, so that with the support of two staves hardly could she move her step; B. Baptista being invoked her natural vigor and of moving her feet the faculty received, and was found whole; as also otherwise often from infirmities of the head and eyes. For many months in bed had lain Paula Mazzutelli, so that none of her members could she of herself move. and the paralytic; She by sorrows aggravated when a vow of B. Baptista she had made, not only relieved herself she felt, but also into a sweet slumber having fallen there appeared her deliveress, and by a touch whole rendered her, as if no inconvenience ever she had suffered. In her whole body was tormented Fr. Thomas of Matelica, when having remembered to invoke Baptista, suddenly whole he saw himself and from the torments free.

[51] those struck by lightning rise unhurt; In the year 1636 Lady Anna Cucchiaroni with her two daughters had come to the monastery of St. Clare on the day of St. James the Apostle; when the sky being suddenly darkened, a furious hail upon the place fell, mingled with thunders and lightnings, one of which not far where they stood fell. Hence astounded both the seculars and the religious women, all as dead fell to the ground: but soon as into the parlour the Relics of Baptista were brought, they returned to their senses who had been consternated: and the aforesaid Lady in sign of a grateful mind left an alms, from which afterward was repaired an image of the Blessed, which even today is kept in the part of the choir interior. The same Lady Anna, by the most intense pains of the colic passion invaded, to death most near was judged by the physicians: but she was preserved, the heavenly help through the intercession of the Blessed imploring: to whom afterward a silver votive offering she presented in memory of the danger escaped.

[52] a vow being made the Confessor of the place is healed, Fr. Antonius Massucci of Recanati, the Confessor of the monastery of St. Clare, finding no remedy for the grave pains which his whole body lacerated, nor any rest to him granted even small; after other things in vain tried, vowed a votive offering to be affixed to the sacred tomb, and whole without delay he was. A certain noble Camerino matron, whose name was Magdalena Ugolini, with an enormous was tormented headache: of which because the origin was unknown also was not found a remedy. She went therefore to the monastery of St. Clare, where she had a sister: and persuaded to commend herself to B. Baptista and a votive image to offer, likewise many from headache, the vow made freed she said she was, and the vow she paid. In a like case to the same recurred Lady Gentileva Ugolini, an image with a silver head vowing: and quickly made partaker of her vow, it exactly to fulfill she took care. From the same cause no part of rest by night and day took Sister Maria-Olympia Aquini: but the other remedies failing, a votive tablet if she were healed to the sepulcher of the Blessed to be hung she promised, and whole she was.

[53] She was occupied in the monastery's utility Sister Laura Rossetti, her face poured over with boiling must, when boiling must being incautiously spilled over her face and arm, not only did she burn for herself the skin, but her cheeks also so swollen had, that with eyes closed with the greatest torment now nothing but two shapeless masses of flesh skinned were discerned, not without danger of perpetual blindness. That therefore of the grace of the Blessed she might partake, to her patronage humble and devout she ran. And when brought before the sepulcher fervently there prayers she had poured, in a short time she recovered entire health. Sister also Columba Piselli, an arm useless, on account of an arm ill-affected its torments, for every service of the monastery useless was: but the Blessed invoking, with the promise of a silver votive offering, she deserved heard to be healed. To Sister Maria-Angelica Cucchiaroni so were luxated the teeth, that at every lightest touch they seemed to fall out: she vowed therefore a row of silver teeth to the Blessed's sepulcher to be affixed, and her own soon to be consolidated she felt, teeth luxated, nor did she delay the contracted obligation as quickly as possible to satisfy. In a like manner consoled herself felt Sister Flavia Voglia, the same inconvenience suffering.

[54] Sister Venantia Rossetti, with a catarrh upon her eyes flowing down almost her sight had lost: eyes darkened, but a vow being made of offering two silver eyes, her own for herself she kept. Similarly in her eyes infirm was Sister Michaela Maggi, which to her like two fleshy masses had swollen: but they subsided, after a vow to the Blessed made. An infirmity in her throat suffered Sister Venantia Savini, for whom a remedy to make could not the physicians: quinsy, wherefore to the Blessed she devoted herself, and soon to have better she began, nor much after entirely whole she was. Sister Benedicta Bonapasta with the epileptic malady so was agitated, that any day often to the ground she was dashed. She to the sepulcher of the Blessed went, and there the malady recurring fallen and half-dead, she saw her before her standing in habit religious: epilepsy, nor much after raised to her feet, thenceforth such nothing she suffered, and therefore a silver votive offering as bound by vow she presented. The same malady suffering Bartholomaeus Nerucci, almost also to have lost the use of his mind he seemed; and so persevering without hope of remedy he invoked the Blessed; promising if he were healed to visit her sepulcher in thanksgiving: madness, and soon heard to a sound mind entirely he returned; and whole also in body the vow he fulfilled.

[55] dropsy, Lord Franciscus Candella almost to madness reduced by the force of disease was: but by the Nuns to the Blessed commended, into himself he returned and whole he was. A certain man, whose name has dropped out, with water under the skin to that point had swollen, to which can dropsy the body inflate: who the physicians despairing being commended to the Blessed, deafness, to the common stupor of all subsided and convalesced. They knew not the same physicians to recognize the malady, by which Sister Hyacintha Camera's bowels were tormented: the human remedies therefore being dismissed to the divine recourse was had, and by the intercession of the blessed Foundress the health of the afflicted returned. To a certain man of Piceno was placed in his ears a flock of cotton from the chest of the Blessed, and hearing received those who were deaf. A certain daughter of Lord Franciscus Piselli so weak in her legs was, that to raise herself to her feet she could not or anywhere advance. For her her father his own a silver leg to the Blessed vowed, and the girl expeditely walking quickly he saw. A like inconvenience with a defect of speech for her son feared Joanna-Andrea Bona, weakness of the legs; who already three years old neither a voice to form nor to stand on his feet could: but when to him the Relics of the Blessed she had caused to be applied, that trouble loosed soon was, the boy both to speak and to walk beginning.

[56] the faculty of suckling is restored, A certain little son of Lord Venantius Savini milk to suck could not: but brought to the monastery, through the invocation of the Blessed and the touch of the Relics, of suckling having obtained the faculty, the necessary for him nourishment thenceforth he used. The hand of Sister Raphaela Maggi with so doubtful a malady was affected, that by the physicians' judgment it was thought she would never use it more. But the Blessed asking that for her she would intercede, in a short time she obtained the health which she had asked. Her voice altogether had lost Sister Cecilia Ugolini, on account of a vehement passion of the stomach: but the Blessed invoking, a hand dead, the same she recovered. By a most savage fever was held Lady Primavera Monaldi, to whom when arthritic pains and a flux of blood had been added, for desperate she was held by the physicians. Therefore to the Blessed she turned, speech; and heard at once she convalesced. By a like fever afflicted Lord Octavius Strada devoutly commended himself to the intercession of the Blessed, intending if he were healed to offer an image: and suddenly to be quenched began the febrile heats, and daily better to have himself feeling, at length full health attained grateful he acknowledged. fevers are healed, None the less his little daughter aggravated by fever Lord Gaspar Forti commended to the Blessed, and the same day whole he had her.

[57] an incurable hip, Lady Sulpitia Nari of Rome had in her service a young maid, with an incurable malady in one of the hips laboring: which when at last with nothing profiting the physicians' art turned to gangrene, invoking devoutly the Blessed the sick one, promised to the sepulcher of her a silver image to be sent by her if to be cured through her she had deserved, a paralytic woman and by an evident miracle whole made the vow she fulfilled. Sister Christina Manarda so a hindered foot from disease retained, that paralytic for three months in bed she lay, with great torment of hers: and when applied to the malady remedies did not profit, recourse to the Blessed she had leaning on a staff: which as soon as to the tomb she came, there she laid down, wholly now strong, an abscess on the knee, and as a monument of gratitude she hung also a silver leg. Sister Columba Piselli in one of her knees an abscess suffered and was cured by physicians; so great meanwhile from it pains sustaining, that by days and nights she could not rest. Therefore determining the human remedies abdicated the divine thenceforth to experience, a dying woman in childbirth to the sepulcher of the Blessed to be carried she caused herself, and there at once healed she was. Lady Venantia Voglia, unmarried of the Piselli, a long time the pains of childbirth had sustained, from which after childbirth nothing relieved, now now about to expire she was believed: but a vow to the Blessed made, hope of life she received, and shortly also health, and the vow she paid.

[58] To a certain Catharina's little son, gravely wounded, to prolong at least his life sewn were his bowels: but cotton from the chest taken, and a boy; applied

to the wound, a surer medicine for him made it, and his life preserved, he suddenly beginning to have better. Lord Franciscus Battibocca struck on the head, so gravely was injured, that it was necessary for his cure many fragments of bone thence to extract, a gravely injured head whence also into mania he fell, no more either to read or write being able. That matter when grievous it befell certain kinsmen of his, Nuns of St. Clare, they agreed that him to their holy Foundress they should commend: and the vow obtained, in thanksgiving a silver head they hung up. Of those whom I said Nuns one, Sister Maria Battibocca, her hand had transfixed with a needle so unhappily, and a hand. that no blood appearing she suffered a spasm, nor for the most intense thence pain found a medicine; until the Blessed being invoked she drove away the pains, and her whole made.

[59] At Rimini, where a relic, But neither within the bounds of one monastery or her fatherland city stood the glory of the deceased Baptista: for God is wont the knowledge of His beloved ones to propagate farther, by the mediation of particles of Relics, as seeds of blessing. When therefore the Mothers of the monastery of the Angels at Rimini a little bone of Baptista had obtained, it in their private oratory religiously they placed, a pledge of obtaining from God graces. And indeed congruous plainly it was, that a part of herself the Blessed should communicate to that city, whence through her mother Joanna her lineage she had drawn. Of this toward the people of Rimini benevolence the effect was the grace conferred on Sister Angela-Catharina Ceccoli, a dying Nun is cured there a Nun, who with a grave and malign fever laboring rest took none: the disease being increased by a swelling, which on her left side appeared to the size of one loaf. Wherefore desperate judging the physicians, they advised her to be provided with the last Sacraments. Into that state therefore brought, in which neither could she move herself by herself in bed, by nods more than by voices she begged Sister Maria-Seraphina de' Malatesta, there at that time Abbess, that a Relic of B. Baptista to her she would bring. She obeyed the sick one's desire. Nor was there delay: at once when into the cell the precious Relic was brought, with great joy suffused the sick one, to the Blessed from her heart commended herself: and the swelling with the same Relic duly signed vanished, the pain departed, and sleep the following night came, with the stupor of the physicians and Religious women all. In monument of which thing a relation authentic was composed, and to Camerino sent, to the monastery of St. Clare.

[60] likewise from the stone, Sister Antonia Fabbri a Conversa, suffering grave torments, which from the stone were judged to proceed, and by the same to the extreme term of life brought, now was being fortified with the Sacraments for her exit; when to her aid she called the Blessed, and by her Relics signed, all pain wiped away from herself she felt, nor it thenceforth was seen to endure. Sister Innocentia-Felix Alberini, was oppressed by a sudden catarrh, which continually dripping her respiration impeded and her speech rendered impossible: and now in face deformed, and signs prognosticating death bearing, very few moments of time remaining were believed to be: the catarrh choking her, when Sister Florida Marchetti, knowing well, with how tender devotion was affected the sick one toward B. Baptista; applied to her cotton, from the Reliquary taken, forming the sign of the Cross; and soon she both to breathe and to speak expeditely began, health so sudden and unhoped-for to the Blessed referring. Lord Camillus Luizani, seized by a most grave fever and a torment of the stomach, not without suspicion of poison, taking a little of the aforesaid cotton, or those in peril from a venomous fever. to him sent by Sister Maria-Seraphina de' Malatesta, soon as it to the malady he applied, free from the fever and every other pain he was, the physicians wondering.

COROLLARY TO THE WHOLE MONTH OF MAY.

ON THE DAY AFTER THE LORD'S ASCENSION